scholarly journals Kin selection, not group augmentation, predicts helping in an obligate cooperatively breeding bird

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1743) ◽  
pp. 3861-3869 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Browning ◽  
S. C. Patrick ◽  
L. A. Rollins ◽  
S. C. Griffith ◽  
A. F. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Breeding ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Large Groups

Kin selection theory has been the central model for understanding the evolution of cooperative breeding, where non-breeders help bear the cost of rearing young. Recently, the dominance of this idea has been questioned; particularly in obligate cooperative breeders where breeding without help is uncommon and seldom successful. In such systems, the direct benefits gained through augmenting current group size have been hypothesized to provide a tractable alternative (or addition) to kin selection. However, clear empirical tests of the opposing predictions are lacking. Here, we provide convincing evidence to suggest that kin selection and not group augmentation accounts for decisions of whether, where and how often to help in an obligate cooperative breeder, the chestnut-crowned babbler ( Pomatostomus ruficeps ). We found no evidence that group members base helping decisions on the size of breeding units available in their social group, despite both correlational and experimental data showing substantial variation in the degree to which helpers affect productivity in units of different size. By contrast, 98 per cent of group members with kin present helped, 100 per cent directed their care towards the most related brood in the social group, and those rearing half/full-sibs helped approximately three times harder than those rearing less/non-related broods. We conclude that kin selection plays a central role in the maintenance of cooperative breeding in this species, despite the apparent importance of living in large groups.

scholarly journals The Cognitive Processes Underlying Moral Judgment Across Development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Chalik ◽  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Marjorie Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Moral Belief ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Made In

Some moral philosophers have suggested that a basic prohibition against intentional harm ought to be at the core of moral belief systems across human societies. Yet, experimental work suggests that not all harm is created equal—people often respond more negatively to harm that occurs among fellow social group members, rather than between members of different groups. The present two studies investigated how concerns about social group membership factor into the moral judgment system. Adults (N = 111, Study 1) and children (N = 110, Study 2) evaluated instances of inter- and intra-group harm under varying levels of cognitive load. Both children and adults responded more slowly to intergroup harm than to intragroup harm. Furthermore, adults under cognitive load rated intergroup harm more leniently than intragroup harm, but adults who were not under load rated the two types of behaviors similarly. These findings suggest that across development, evaluations of intergroup harm rely more heavily on conscious deliberation than evaluations of intragroup harm. Thus, people's evaluations of harmful behaviors are made in light of information about the social category membership of the people involved.

scholarly journals Kinship affects investment by helpers in a cooperatively breeding bird

2010 ◽  
Vol 277 (1698) ◽  
pp. 3299-3306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ki-Baek Nam ◽  
Michelle Simeoni ◽  
Stuart P. Sharp ◽  
Ben J. Hatchwell
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Breeding ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Breeding Systems ◽  
Pedigree Information ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Indirect Fitness ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Helping behaviour in cooperative breeding systems has been attributed to kin selection, but the relative roles of direct and indirect fitness benefits in the evolution of such systems remain a matter of debate. In theory, helpers could maximize the indirect fitness benefits of cooperation by investing more in broods with whom they are more closely related, but there is little evidence for such fine-scale adjustment in helper effort among cooperative vertebrates. In this study, we used the unusual cooperative breeding system of the long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus to test the hypothesis that the provisioning effort of helpers was positively correlated with their kinship to broods. We first use pedigrees and microsatellite genotypes to characterize the relatedness between helpers and breeders from a 14 year field study. We used both pedigree and genetic approaches because long-tailed tits have access to pedigree information acquired through social relationships, but any fitness consequences will be determined by genetic relatedness. We then show using both pedigrees and genetic relatedness estimates that alloparental investment by helpers increases as their relatedness to the recipients of their care increases. We conclude that kin selection has played a critical role in moulding the investment decisions of helpers in this cooperatively breeding species.

scholarly journals Do Peers Affect Undergraduates’ Decisions to Switch Majors?

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013189X2110235
Author(s):  
Shi Pu ◽  
Yu Yan ◽  
Liang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Peer Effects ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Strong Nonlinearity ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Job Prospects

In this study, dormitory room and social group assignment data from a college are used to investigate peer effects on college students’ decisions to switch majors. Results reveal strong evidence of such peer effects at both the room and the social group level. Most notably, at the room level, the dense concentration of same-major roommates deters students from switching majors; having one or two same-major roommates has no significant effect on major switching, indicating strong nonlinearity of peer effects at the room level. Such nonlinearity is not observed among social group members. Results also reveal evidence that students’ choices of new majors are affected by peers’ majors. Peers are more likely to choose the same destination majors than nonpeers. In choosing their new majors, students do not necessarily follow their peers indiscriminately. Their decisions seem to be influenced more by short-term academic requirements than by long-term job prospects. Finally, peer effects on major switching and major choices are stronger at the dormitory room level than at the social group level in most cases.

scholarly journals Strategic investment explains patterns of cooperation and cheating in a microbe

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (21) ◽  
pp. E4823-E4832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip G. Madgwick ◽  
Balint Stewart ◽  
Laurence J. Belcher ◽  
Christopher R. L. Thompson ◽  
Jason B. Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Kin Selection ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Spore Dispersal ◽  
Strategic Investment ◽  
Social Amoeba ◽  
Investment Game ◽  
Genotype Frequencies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Natural Strains

Contributing to cooperation is typically costly, while its rewards are often available to all members of a social group. So why should individuals be willing to pay these costs, especially if they could cheat by exploiting the investments of others? Kin selection theory broadly predicts that individuals should invest more into cooperation if their relatedness to group members is high (assuming they can discriminate kin from nonkin). To better understand how relatedness affects cooperation, we derived the ‟Collective Investment” game, which provides quantitative predictions for patterns of strategic investment depending on the level of relatedness. We then tested these predictions by experimentally manipulating relatedness (genotype frequencies) in mixed cooperative aggregations of the social amoebaDictyostelium discoideum, which builds a stalk to facilitate spore dispersal. Measurements of stalk investment by natural strains correspond to the predicted patterns of relatedness-dependent strategic investment, wherein investment by a strain increases with its relatedness to the group. Furthermore, if overall group relatedness is relatively low (i.e., no strain is at high frequency in a group) strains face a scenario akin to the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” and suffer from insufficient collective investment. We find that strains employ relatedness-dependent segregation to avoid these pernicious conditions. These findings demonstrate that simple organisms likeD. discoideumare not restricted to being ‟cheaters” or ‟cooperators” but instead measure their relatedness to their group and strategically modulate their investment into cooperation accordingly. Consequently, all individuals will sometimes appear to cooperate and sometimes cheat due to the dynamics of strategic investing.

scholarly journals Group-size-dependent punishment of idle subordinates in a cooperative breeder where helpers pay to stay

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1789) ◽  
pp. 20140184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Fischer ◽  
Markus Zöttl ◽  
Frank Groenewoud ◽  
Barbara Taborsky
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Cooperative Breeding ◽  
Breeding Systems ◽  
Idle Period ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Cooperatively Breeding ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Large Groups

In cooperative breeding systems, dominant breeders sometimes tolerate unrelated individuals even if they inflict costs on the dominants. According to the ‘pay-to-stay’ hypothesis, (i) subordinates can outweigh these costs by providing help and (ii) dominants should be able to enforce help by punishing subordinates that provide insufficient help. This requires that dominants can monitor helping and can recognize group members individually. In a field experiment, we tested whether cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher subordinates increase their help after a forced ‘idle’ period, how other group members respond to a previously idle helper, and how helper behaviour and group responses depend on group size. Previously idle helpers increased their submissiveness and received more aggression than control helpers, suggesting that punishment occurred to enforce help. Subordinates in small groups increased their help more than those in large groups, despite receiving less aggression. When subordinates were temporarily removed, dominants in small groups were more likely to evict returning subordinates. Our results suggest that only in small groups do helpers face a latent threat of punishment by breeders as predicted by the pay-to-stay hypothesis. In large groups, cognitive constraints may prevent breeders from tracking the behaviour of a large number of helpers.

Social stratification on the Swahili coast: from race to class?

Africa ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Constantin
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Swahili Coast ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Cost

Opening ParagraphThe analysis of ‘social stratification’ (a polite way of speaking of inequality) is crucial to that of political power, though not easy, regardless of the social group investigated. At the cost of oversimplification, die-hard theoreticians minimise the problem by using ready-made typologies and causal links purporting to explain all living social structures.

Adrenal cortex activity, reproduction and welfare of pregnant gilts in a group housing system

1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 ◽  
pp. 64-64
Author(s):  
M.T. Mendl ◽  
D.M. Broom ◽  
A.J. Zanella
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Housing System ◽  
Group Housing ◽  
Detailed Data ◽  
Housing Systems ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
High Production ◽  
Large Groups

On many farms in Britain, the housing of pregnant sows in groups, principally in electronic sow feeder systems, is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to housing them individually in stalls or tethers. When sows are housed in large groups, particularly in "dynamic groups" where individuals are continually leaving the group to farrow and re-joining it after lactation, aggression between group members may become a problem. Aggression may give rise to social stress and injuries and may also have detrimental effects on production. In order to ensure good welfare and high production in group housing systems, it is essential to gain some fundamental knowledge as to how individual sows are affected by the social environment in which they live. This paper examines how a group of gilts responded to being introduced into an electronic sow feeder system and mixed with unfamiliar animals. Detailed data on behaviour, physiology and reproduction were collected for each individual in the group /in an attempt to examine whether the way in which individuals responded to the social environment had consequences for measures of their welfare and productivity.

scholarly journals The social lens of choice of hairstyle among Ghanaian female youth

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Adams Quagrainie ◽  
Afia Dentaa Dankwa ◽  
Alan Anis Mirhage Kabalan
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Religious Influence ◽  
Female Youth ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Fashion Consciousness

In this article, we review research on social factors with the main focus being on how self, social factors and fashion consciousness interact with the choice of hairstyles. By highlighting the situations of 397 Ghanaian female youth, we show how their perspectives define beautiful hairstyles and how social factors interact with the choice of hairstyle with fashion consciousness as a mediator. Using social actual-concept and social factors on behaviours as theoretical frameworks, we show the influence of religious influence, views of social group members, attractiveness and uniqueness on choice of hairstyle. Mediator analyses indicate that fashion consciousness explains the interactions among views of social group members and attractiveness with the choice of hairstyle. Implications for marketing and future directions for research on choice of hairstyle are suggested.

scholarly journals Social Identity Theory and Communication

Communication ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles M. Rowling
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Group Identity ◽  
Identity Theory ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members

In the 1970s, scholars in social psychology began exploring the process by which individuals attach their own identity to the groups in which they associate. This gave rise to social identity theory, which rests on the notion that, through largely unconscious cognitive processes, individuals who value and closely identify with a particular social group (e.g., familial, ethnic, religious, gender, partisan, national, etc.) will tend to take on characteristics and exhibit behaviors that are consistent with positive attributes associated with that group. Social identity theory also suggests that individuals do more than merely identify with the social groups to which they belong; they also derive comfort, security, and self-esteem from these groups. As a result, group members often engage in favoritism toward their own social group and, at times, denigration of other social groups as a way to protect or enhance their own group identity. Because individuals identify with multiple groups, the concept of salience is also crucial to our understanding of social identity theory. Specifically, individuals will seek to protect or enhance a particular group identity (through words or actions) when they perceive it to be threatened or they sense an opportunity to promote or enhance it. Given the obvious import and relevance of these dynamics to various aspects of society, research on social identity theory has grown exponentially over the past several decades, especially within the social sciences. Scholars in the fields of psychology, sociology, political science, and communication, for example, have increasingly paid attention to and incorporated social identity theory into their study of everything from how politicians communicate to how people vote to how people interact with other cultures. Notably, within the field of communication, the value of social identity theory rests with its ability to explain or predict messaging and response behaviors when a particular group identity is made salient. Thus, social identity theory is a robust theoretical framework that, in recent years, has had broad appeal and application across a number of academic disciplines. With a focus on the intersection of social identity theory and communication research, this article seeks to identify the foundational works within this area of research, recognize the primary journals in which this research can be found, discuss the key concepts and terms associated with this research, and explore how social identity theory has evolved both theoretically and empirically since its inception in the 1970s.

Group Norms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Behavior Change Interventions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Group Member ◽  
Social Identity Approach

As social animals, humans are strongly influenced by the opinions and actions of those around them. Group norms are the expectations and behaviors associated with a social group, such as a nationality, an organization, or a sports team. Group norms can emerge during group interaction as group members are exposed to the opinions, or observe the actions, of fellow group members. Group norms can also emerge by comparing the attitudes and actions of the group with other groups. Leaders can also influence what is seen to be acceptable behaviors for group members to exhibit. One of the most dominant approaches to the study of group norms is the social identity approach. The social identity approach proposes that belonging to a social group provides individuals with a definition of who one is, and a description and prescription of what is involved in being a group member. A large body of research has confirmed the power of group norms to determine the form and direction of group members’ attitudes and actions, particularly those individuals strongly attached to the group, across many behavioral domains. In thinking about group norms, it is important to recognize that norms have both prescriptive (i.e., what should be done) and descriptive (i.e., what is done) elements. Research has found that group norms are most influential when aligned, but that misaligned or conflicting norms—either within the group or across multiple groups to which an individual belongs—can be particularly harmful in terms of engagement in a desired behavior. It is critical to appreciate and understand these complexities to be able to change group norms and, therefore, group members’ actions. The insight that group norms are powerful determinants of behavior has been incorporated into behavior change interventions, including so-called “nudge” interventions. However, norms-based campaigns are not always successful, and can even lead to backlash effects, often because change agents have failed to consider identity-related processes, such as the role of leaders, the source of the influence attempt, and threats arising from attempts to change one’s group. Shared identity is a key mechanism through which people internalize (new) understandings of what it means to be a group member into the self-concept, and understanding these processes may lead to more enduring change in underlying motives, beliefs, and behavior.

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