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Author Amdam, G.V.; Csondes, A.; Fondrk, M.K.; Page, R.E.J.
Title Complex social behaviour derived from maternal reproductive traits Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature
Volume 439 Issue 7072 Pages 76-78
Keywords Aging/physiology; Animals; Bees/*physiology; *Evolution; Feeding Behavior/*physiology; Female; Infertility, Female; Maternal Behavior/*physiology; Ovary/physiology; Pollen/metabolism; Reproduction/*physiology; *Social Behavior
Abstract A fundamental goal of sociobiology is to explain how complex social behaviour evolves, especially in social insects, the exemplars of social living. Although still the subject of much controversy, recent theoretical explanations have focused on the evolutionary origins of worker behaviour (assistance from daughters that remain in the nest and help their mother to reproduce) through expression of maternal care behaviour towards siblings. A key prediction of this evolutionary model is that traits involved in maternal care have been co-opted through heterochronous expression of maternal genes to result in sib-care, the hallmark of highly evolved social life in insects. A coupling of maternal behaviour to reproductive status evolved in solitary insects, and was a ready substrate for the evolution of worker-containing societies. Here we show that division of foraging labour among worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) is linked to the reproductive status of facultatively sterile females. We thereby identify the evolutionary origin of a widely expressed social-insect behavioural syndrome, and provide a direct demonstration of how variation in maternal reproductive traits gives rise to complex social behaviour in non-reproductive helpers.
Address Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA. Gro.Amdam@asu.edu
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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ISSN (up) 1476-4687 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16397498 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 531
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Author Whiten, A.
Title The second inheritance system of chimpanzees and humans Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature
Volume 437 Issue 7055 Pages 52-55
Keywords Animals; Animals, Wild/physiology/psychology; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; *Culture; Female; Humans; Imitative Behavior; Learning/*physiology; Pan troglodytes/*physiology/psychology; *Social Behavior; Technology
Abstract Half a century of dedicated field research has brought us from ignorance of our closest relatives to the discovery that chimpanzee communities resemble human cultures in possessing suites of local traditions that uniquely identify them. The collaborative effort required to establish this picture parallels the one set up to sequence the chimpanzee genome, and has revealed a complex social inheritance system that complements the genetic picture we are now developing.
Address Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, UK. a.whiten@st-and.ac.uk
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN (up) 1476-4687 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16136127 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 730
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Author Whiten, A.
Title Social complexity and social intelligence Type Conference Article
Year 2000 Publication Novartis Foundation Symposium Abbreviated Journal Novartis Found Symp
Volume 233 Issue Pages 185-96; discussion 196-201
Keywords Animals; Brain/anatomy & histology/*physiology; Humans; *Intelligence/physiology; Learning; Models, Psychological; Primates; *Social Behavior; Social Problems
Abstract When we talk of the 'nature of intelligence', or any other attribute, we may be referring to its essential structure, or to its place in nature, particularly the function it has evolved to serve. Here I examine both, from the perspective of the evolution of intelligence in primates. Over the last 20 years, the Social (or 'Machiavellian') Intelligence Hypothesis has gained empirical support. Its core claim is that the intelligence of primates is primarily an adaptation to the special complexities of primate social life. In addition to this hypothesis about the function of intellect, a secondary claim is that the very structure of intelligence has been moulded to be 'social' in character, an idea that presents a challenge to orthodox views of intelligence as a general-purpose capacity. I shall outline the principal components of social intelligence and the environment of social complexity it engages with. This raises the question of whether domain specificity is an appropriate characterization of social intelligence and its subcomponents, like theory of mind. As a counter-argument to such specificity I consider the hypothesis that great apes exhibit a cluster of advanced cognitive abilities that rest on a shared capacity for second-order mental representation.
Address School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JU, UK
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ISSN (up) 1528-2511 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:11276903 Approved no
Call Number Serial 2084
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Author Flack, J.C.; de Waal, F.B.M.; Krakauer, D.C.
Title Social structure, robustness, and policing cost in a cognitively sophisticated species Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication The American Naturalist Abbreviated Journal Am Nat
Volume 165 Issue 5 Pages E126-139
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Cognition; Conflict (Psychology); Female; Macaca nemestrina/*physiology; Male; Models, Biological; *Social Behavior
Abstract Conflict management is one of the primary requirements for social complexity. Of the many forms of conflict management, one of the rarest and most interesting is third-party policing, or intervening impartially to control conflict. Third-party policing should be hard to evolve because policers personally pay a cost for intervening, while the benefits are diffused over the whole group. In this study we investigate the incidence and costs of policing in a primate society. We report quantitative evidence of non-kin policing in the nonhuman primate, the pigtailed macaque. We find that policing is effective at reducing the intensity of or terminating conflict when performed by the most powerful individuals. We define a measure, social power consensus, that predicts effective low-cost interventions by powerful individuals and ineffective, relatively costly interventions by low-power individuals. Finally, we develop a simple probabilistic model to explore whether the degree to which policing can effectively reduce the societal cost of conflict is dependent on variance in the distribution of power. Our data and simple model suggest that third-party policing effectiveness and cost are dependent on power structure and might emerge only in societies with high variance in power.
Address Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA. jflack@santafe.edu
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN (up) 1537-5323 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15795848 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 168
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