scholarly journals Social bet-hedging in vampire bats

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 20170112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald G. Carter ◽  
Damien R. Farine ◽  
Gerald S. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Food Sharing ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Bet Hedging ◽  
Hedging Strategies ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
Vampire Bats ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Reduce Risk

Helping kin or nonkin can provide direct fitness benefits, but helping kin also benefits indirect fitness. Why then should organisms invest in cooperative partnerships with nonkin, if kin relationships are available and more beneficial? One explanation is that a kin-limited support network is too small and risky. Even if additional weaker partnerships reduce immediate net cooperative returns, individuals extending cooperation to nonkin can maintain a larger social network which reduces the potential costs associated with losing a primary cooperation partner. Just as financial or evolutionary bet-hedging strategies can reduce risk, investing in quantity of social relationships at the expense of relationship quality (‘social bet-hedging’) can reduce the risks posed by unpredictable social environments. Here, we provide evidence for social bet-hedging in food-sharing vampire bats. When we experimentally removed a key food-sharing partner, females that previously fed a greater number of unrelated females suffered a smaller reduction in food received. Females that invested in more nonkin bonds did not do better under normal conditions, but they coped better with partner loss. Hence, loss of a key partner revealed the importance of weaker nonkin bonds. Social bet-hedging can have important implications for social network structure by influencing how individuals form relationships.

scholarly journals Food sharing in vampire bats: reciprocal help predicts donations more than relatedness or harassment

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20122573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald G. Carter ◽  
Gerald S. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Kin Selection ◽  
Kin Recognition ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Food Sharing ◽  
Past Work ◽  
Vampire Bats ◽  
Helping Behaviour ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Recognition Errors

Common vampire bats often regurgitate food to roost-mates that fail to feed. The original explanation for this costly helping behaviour invoked both direct and indirect fitness benefits. Several authors have since suggested that food sharing is maintained solely by indirect fitness because non-kin food sharing could have resulted from kin recognition errors, indiscriminate altruism within groups, or harassment. To test these alternatives, we examined predictors of food-sharing decisions under controlled conditions of mixed relatedness and equal familiarity. Over a 2 year period, we individually fasted 20 vampire bats ( Desmodus rotundus ) and induced food sharing on 48 days. Surprisingly, donors initiated food sharing more often than recipients, which is inconsistent with harassment. Food received was the best predictor of food given across dyads, and 8.5 times more important than relatedness. Sixty-four per cent of sharing dyads were unrelated, approaching the 67 per cent expected if nepotism was absent. Consistent with social bonding, the food-sharing network was consistent and correlated with mutual allogrooming. Together with past work, these findings support the hypothesis that food sharing in vampire bats provides mutual direct fitness benefits, and is not explained solely by kin selection or harassment.

scholarly journals Research on the Structure and Characteristics of the Overall Social Network of Professional Athletes

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Shuqin Cui ◽  
Mingyou Gao ◽  
Yang Xun ◽  
Sai-Fu Fung ◽  
Yujiao Tan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Small World ◽  
Support Networks ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Professional Athletes ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Social Support Network ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
The Social

This study chooses Chinese athletes as the research object and constructs the overall network of its social support network and discussion network. From the micro-, meso-, and macrolevels of the social network structure, the structure and characteristics of the athlete’s overall social network are analyzed. Through research, we found that there is embeddedness, that is, the relevance, between society support networks, between society discussion networks, and between society support networks and society discussion networks. At the same time, in the athletes’ social support network and social discussion network, some athletes have no contact with other players; they have no “power” in the group as well, so it is difficult to obtain network resources. We also found that there are small-world characteristics in the social network of Chinese professional athletes. The above findings will provide a deeper understanding of the peculiarities of athlete groups and have certain practical significance for improving athletes’ daily training and life management conditions.

scholarly journals Social benefits of non-kin food sharing by female vampire bats

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1819) ◽  
pp. 20152524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald G. Carter ◽  
Gerald S. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Period ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Food Sharing ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Adult Females ◽  
Vampire Bats ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Alternative Responses ◽  
Close Relatives

Regurgitations of blood among vampire bats appear to benefit both direct and indirect fitness. To maximize inclusive fitness, reciprocal food sharing should occur among close kin. Why then do females with kin roost-mates help non-kin? We tested the hypothesis that helping non-kin increases a bat's success at obtaining future donations by expanding its network of potential donors. On six occasions, we individually fasted 14 adult females and measured donations from 28 possible donors. Each female was fasted before, during and after a treatment period, when we prevented donations from past donors (including 10 close relatives) by simultaneously fasting or removing them. This experiment was designed to detect partner switching and yielded three main results. First, females received less food when we prevented donations from a past donor versus a control bat. Donors within a group are therefore not interchangeable. Second, the treatment increased the variance in donors' contributions to food received by subjects, suggesting the possibility of alternative responses to a partner's inability to reciprocate. Finally, bats that fed more non-kin in previous years had more donors and received more food during the treatment. These results indicate that a bat can expand its network of possible donors by helping non-kin.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Structural Characteristics of the Online Social Network of Chinese Professional Athletes

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Yue Wang ◽  
Qian Huang ◽  
Qiurong Wang ◽  
Yang Xun ◽  
Yujiao Tan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Online Social Network ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
Relationship Structure ◽  
The Impact

In response to the lack of research on the online social network structure of athletes, elements of research on the online social network structure of athletes were constructed based on the whole network perspective and through the study of the characteristics of the whole online social network structure of athletes, in order to provide reference for the physical and mental health development of athletes from a new perspective. Data were collected through questionnaires, and several software programs were used to preprocess and analyse the collected data. Through the analysis of the online whole network structure, it was found that the network density of the online support network was generally greater than that of the online discussion network, and athletes still showed stronger practical support demands and behaved more rationally in the process of training and learning life, while from the perspective of the relationship structure, the athletes’ family and classmates’ online support is weaker than that in previous studies; in terms of the whole network, strong relationships still dominate in this population, while attention should be paid to the impact of weak relationships.

scholarly journals Research on the Relationship between Social Support and Employment Quality of Chinese Athletes from the Perspective of Social Network Structure

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Meijuan Cao ◽  
Shuairan Li ◽  
Wenfei Yue ◽  
Huanqing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Social Support Network ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sports Team ◽  
Employment Quality ◽  
The Impact

Based on the theories of social network, social support, and retirement process, this study analyzes the source and composition of social support for Chinese athletes on the basis of constructing the social support network. Subsequently, we analyze the impact of social support on employment quality of Chinese athletes from different dimensions and further explore the mechanism of social support on the employment quality of athletes from the moderating role of athletes’ self-employment cognition. The study found that the social support network of athletes showed a clear tendency toward “strong ties,” and the social support they received mainly came from family members, teammates, and sports team managers. These kinds of social support will directly promote the employment quality of athletes after retirement. When athletes have full knowledge of their future employment status, the effect of social support in promoting employment quality will be further expanded.

Evolutionary dynamics modeling of symbolic social network structure equilibrium

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 229-240
Author(s):  
Weijin Jiang ◽  
Sijian Lv ◽  
Yirong Jiang ◽  
Jiahui Chen ◽  
Fang Ye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Social Network Structure

Online Communities and Social Network Structure

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhao Wei ◽  
Wensi Zhang ◽  
Sha Yang ◽  
Xi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Social Network Structure

scholarly journals Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gergő Tóth ◽  
Johannes Wachs ◽  
Riccardo Di Clemente ◽  
Ákos Jakobi ◽  
Bence Ságvári ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Urban Geography ◽  
Online Social Network ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Social Segregation ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
Physical Barriers

AbstractSocial networks amplify inequalities by fundamental mechanisms of social tie formation such as homophily and triadic closure. These forces sharpen social segregation, which is reflected in fragmented social network structure. Geographical impediments such as distance and physical or administrative boundaries also reinforce social segregation. Yet, less is known about the joint relationships between social network structure, urban geography, and inequality. In this paper we analyze an online social network and find that the fragmentation of social networks is significantly higher in towns in which residential neighborhoods are divided by physical barriers such as rivers and railroads. Towns in which neighborhoods are relatively distant from the center of town and amenities are spatially concentrated are also more socially segregated. Using a two-stage model, we show that these urban geography features have significant relationships with income inequality via social network fragmentation. In other words, the geographic features of a place can compound economic inequalities via social networks.

scholarly journals How social network structure affects decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1826) ◽  
pp. 20152954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Pasquaretta ◽  
Marine Battesti ◽  
Elizabeth Klenschi ◽  
Christophe A. H. Bousquet ◽  
Cedric Sueur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Crucial Information ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Selective Information

Animals use a number of different mechanisms to acquire crucial information. During social encounters, animals can pass information from one to another but, ideally, they would only use information that benefits survival and reproduction. Therefore, individuals need to be able to determine the value of the information they receive. One cue can come from the behaviour of other individuals that are already using the information. Using a previous extended dataset, we studied how individual decision-making is influenced by the behaviour of conspecifics in Drosophila melanogaster . We analysed how uninformed flies acquire and later use information about oviposition site choice they learn from informed flies. Our results suggest that uninformed flies adjust their future choices based on how coordinated the behaviours of the informed individuals they encounter are. Following social interaction, uninformed flies tended either to collectively follow the choice of the informed flies or to avoid it. Using social network analysis, we show that this selective information use seems to be based on the level of homogeneity of the social network. In particular, we found that the variance of individual centrality parameters among informed flies was lower in the case of a ‘follow’ outcome compared with the case of an ‘avoid’ outcome.

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