A study published this Monday finally explains why “when a Portuguese person pisses, they piss two or three”.
Chimpanzees are just like us (or the opposite). In a group context, they will never urinate alone. It is a phenomenon that, under study this Monday at Current Biologyscientists dubbed it “contagious urination”.
In groups of people the same thing usually happens. In the case of men, the phenomenon is explained by the proverb “when a Portuguese person pisses, then two or three piss”. In the case of women, who tend to do it in pairs, it is said that “one tells the story and the other urinates laughing”.
“In humans, we know that our decision to urinate is influenced by social contexts that lead us to urinate simultaneously with others, and that this Simultaneous urination may promote greater social connection“, said the study author Shinya Yamamotoyes Kyoto University (Japan), to .
“Our study with chimpanzees [os nossos parentes vivos mais próximos] clearly shows that they share some similarities in this phenomenon, suggesting the deep evolutionary origin of contagious urination,” he added.
The team decided to start studying the behavior after noticing that a group of chimpanzees in a zoo had a tendency to urinate at around the same time.
As Live Science details, researchers observed 20 chimpanzees in captivity at the Kumamoto Sanctuary, in Japan, for more than 600 hours.
Together we urinate stronger: Urination completed!
What was expected was confirmed. When one chimpanzee in the group urinated, the others were more likely to do so as well. Social position also influenced this behavior. Chimpanzees with lower dominance levels had more likely to urinate when they saw leaders urinate.
Contagious urination can be important for group cohesionfor coordination or strengthening social ties, the researchers concluded.
Another theory is that chimpanzees urinate in one place to deter or confuse predatorsreducing the risk of being followed through stray urine odors.
“We are greatly influenced by the presence of others, even in mundane activities. In both chimpanzees and humans, behaviors such as yawning, pacing, rhythmic tapping and even pupil size are known to be contagious,” the research leader explained to Live Science. Ena Onishi.
Studying “contagious urination” can help scientists understand the behavior of humans’ common ancestors with chimpanzees and the origin of the social custom in humans, from which the famous proverb emerged: “When a Portuguese person pisses, they piss two or three”.
