Hosting tea parties for stuffed animals. Pushing imaginary friends on the swings. Little kids love to play pretend. And people might not be the only ones with this ability. Researchers have found that bonobos might understand imaginary objects too. Bonobos are primates. They’re closely related to humans. A recent study found they’re capable of pretend play. The study was done at Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland. It was published in Science.
Researchers added imaginary juice and grapes to containers. A bonobo named Kanzi watched. Then researchers “emptied” one container. Kanzi was able to point to the one that was still “full.” This suggests that recognizing pretend objects “is not uniquely human,” the study says.
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