Social network and decision-making in primates: a report on Franco-Japanese research collaborations
Résumé
Sociality is suggested to evolve as a strategy for
animals to cope with challenges in their environment.
Within a population, each individual can be seen as part of
a network of social interactions that vary in strength, type
and dynamics (Sueur et al. 2011a). The structure of this
social network can strongly impact upon not only on the
fitness of individuals and their decision-making, but also on
the ecology of populations and the evolution of a species.
Our Franco-Japanese collaboration allowed us to study
social networks in several species (Japanese macaques,
chimpanzees, colobines, etc.) and on different topics (social
epidemiology, social evolution, information transmission).
Individual attributes such as stress, rank or age can
affect how individuals take decisions and the structure of
the social network. This heterogeneity is linked to the
assortativity of individuals and to the efficiency of the flow
within a network. It is important, therefore, that this
heterogeneity is integrated in the process or pattern under
study in order to provide a better resolution of investigation
and, ultimately, a better understanding of behavioural
strategies, social dynamics and social evolution. How
social information affects decision-making could be
important to understand how social groups make collective
decisions and how information may spread throughout the
social group. In human beings, road-crossing behaviours in
the presence of other individuals is a good way to study the
influence of social information on individual behaviour and
decision-making, for instance. Culture directly affects
which information — personal vs social — individuals
prefer to follow. Our collaboration contributed to the
understanding of the relative influence of different factors,
cultural and the presence of other individuals is a good way to study the
influence of social information on individual behaviour and
decision-making, for instance. Culture directly affects
which information — personal vs social — individuals
prefer to follow. Our collaboration contributed to the
understanding of the relative influence of different factors,
cultural and ecological, on primate, including human,
sociality.