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By Spoorthy Raman Being silly and indulging in humor may sound easy, but our brains need to do a lot of heavy lifting to pull it off. Landing a joke requires recognizing what’s socially acceptable, being spontaneous, predicting how others may react, and playfully violating some social expectations. Until now, research on the complex cognitive abilities that underpin humor has focused primarily on humans, while other species are understudied. In a recent study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers present the first evidence of playful teasing behavior in grea…

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