Many social animals adapt preening and grooming behaviors for other social purposes such as bonding and

the
strengthening of social structures. Grooming plays a particularly important role in forming social bonds in many
primate species, such as chacma baboons and wedge-capped capuchins.

In humankind, mutual grooming relates closely to social grooming, which is

defined as the process by which human beings fulfill one of their basic instincts,
such as socializing, cooperating and learning from each other.[4] In research
conducted by Holly Nelson (from the University of New Hampshire) and Glenn
Geher (State University of New York at Paltz), individuals who chose their
romantic partner reported more mutual grooming than others who focused in
other types of relationships. Hence, this study hypothesized that mutual
grooming related to relationship satisfaction, trust and previous experience of
affection within the family. They claim that even though humans do not groom
each other with the same fervor that other species do, they are groomers par
excellence. Therefore, human mutual grooming plays an important role in pair
bonding. In the same investigation, researchers found that individuals with more
promiscuous attitudes and those who scored high on the anxiety sub-scale on an
adult attachment style measure tend to groom their partners more frequently.
These findings were also consistent with some of the functions of grooming:
potential parental indicator, developing trust and courtship or flirtation.[5]
A recent empirical study by Seinenu Thein-Lemelson (University of California,
Berkeley) utilized an ethological approach to examine cross-cultural differences
in human grooming as it pertains to caregiving behaviors. Naturalistic data was
collected through video focal follows with children during routine activities and
then coded for grooming behaviors. This cross-cultural comparison of urban
families in Burma and the United States indicates that there are significant cross-
cultural differences in rates of caregiver-to-child grooming. Burmese caregivers in
the sample groomed children more often than caregivers in the United States.
Additionally, children in the United States have short instances of concentrated
grooming predominantly during daily activities that are structured explicitly
around hygiene goals (bath time), in contrast to the Burmese child, whose
grooming is distributed more evenly within and across daily activities. The
Burmese parents maintained a constant vigilance with regard to risk of infection.
The study is significant because it is the only study of human grooming to utilize
naturalistic data.[6]

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