Monkey business on mobile phones

Chatting on the phone is like grooming among gorillas

Mobile phones allow people to gossip freely and become ape-like in their behaviour, researchers suggest.

Anthropologists at the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) in Oxford, UK, say chatting on the phone is the human equivalent of social grooming among chimpanzees and gorillas.

They claim it helps build relationships, solve conflicts, teach social skills and make friends.

Dr Kate Fox, one of the authors of a report entitled Evolution, Alienation and Gossip - the Role of Mobile Telecommunications in the 21st Century, said: "Gossip is not a trivial pastime; it is part of our evolutionary hard-wiring.

'Social lifeline'

"Language evolved at least partly to allow us to gossip, which is the human of equivalent of 'social grooming' among our primate cousins.

"Mobiles have increased and enhanced this vital therapeutic activity, allowing us to gossip any time, any place, anywhere."

The SIRC report, commissioned by BT Cellnet, included results from a series of focus groups and a survey of 1,000 mobile-phone users.

A third of those surveyed said they gossiped on their mobiles daily, and said the activity could act as a valuable "social lifeline".

Text messaging is described as modern day version of saying "hello" over the garden fence.