Fighting Pigs Could Teach Humans Conflict Mediation

Animals that organize in social groups occasionally experience friction, as when competing for food, living space, mates. When conflicts arise between two group members, a third-party intervention can smooth things over to the benefit of all. Pigs appear to be pretty good at conflict mediation.

Researchers at the University of Torino in Italy observed and recorded a group of 104 domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) on a farm for five months, analyzing squabbles and the détente that followed. Their study is published in Animal Cognition.

Occasionally there would be porcine aggression – biting, shoving, head-butting. The researchers observed the combatant pigs, as well as any intervening neutral party, for three minutes following a brouhaha, noting the gender, age, and relationships of the pigs involved.

They found that both victim and aggressor would usually make peace with gestures like nose-to-nose contact, sitting in proximity with one another, or the extremely cute activity of resting heads on one another. Both the aggressor and the put-upon would deploy make-nice gestures equally after a fight. Interestingly, there were more reconciliations between distantly related pigs than with close kin. (Family, amirite?)

As for third-party buttinskies, their peacekeeping prowess depended on which pig they approached first. If they went to the victim first, the aggression continued (although in that case, the victim’s “anxiety indicators,” such as body shaking, empty-mouth chewing, yawning, and scratching would abate noticeably).

If the bystander pig approached the aggressor first, the aggressive behavior was significantly reduced. And get this: bystanders were more likely to intervene if either the victim or the aggressor were close relatives. Not sure what humans can learn from all this, other than that we should probably behave more like pigs.

Photo credit: Giada Cordoni and Ivan Norscia