Researchers in the United Kingdom have discovered that, just like kids with too much sugar and free space to play, great apes—including gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans—intentionally spin in circles to get dizzy. By analyzing videos of these apes in action, scientists concluded that it's possible this trait came from our shared ancestors. According to the BBC, this behavior might help explain why humans evolved a desire to get high. In a study published in Primates by Adriano R. Lameira and Marcus Perlman, the authors note that "altered mental states is seemingly a human universal, historically and culturally," and that "spinning behaviors may engender similar neurophysiological effects in nonhuman great apes."
Lameira, an associate psychology professor, tells the BBC that the findings "carry huge consequences on how we think about modern human cognition capacities and emotional needs." Perlman is a cognitive scientist and English language and linguistics professor. He and Lameira looked at 40 videos featuring a variety of apes spinning on ropes. The primates tended to go through three bouts of spinning, each one lasting roughly five and a half rotations, though orangutans were more spinny than gorillas. The apes achieved a comparable speed to humans who spin while dancing, such as ballerinas and acrobats.
In a piece for The Conversation, Perlman noted that he began wondering about ape spinning behaviors after watching a viral Calgary Zoo video of Zola the gorilla almost appearing to break-dance while playing in water. Perlman wrote that "the motivation to spin stems from a shared tendency to seek and delight in experiences that stimulate and alter our senses." However, after noting that humans have evolved to seek much more intense altered states, Perlman concludes that "even gentle spinning helps us to see the world from a different perspective." (More discoveries stories.)
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