Does a high social status confer greater levels of trust from groupmates? An experimental study of leadership in domestic horses - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Behavioural Processes Année : 2022

Does a high social status confer greater levels of trust from groupmates? An experimental study of leadership in domestic horses

Résumé

In collective movements, specific individuals may emerge as leaders. In this study on the domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus), we conducted experiments to establish if an individual is successfully followed due to its social status (including hierarchical rank and centrality). We first informed one horse about a hidden food location and recorded by how many it was followed when going back to this location. In this context, all horses lead their groupmates successfully. In a second step, we tested whether group members would trust some leaders more than others by removing the food before the informed individual led the group back to the food location. In addition, two control initiators with intermediate social status for which the food was not removed were tested. The re- sults, confirmed by simulations, demonstrated that the proportions of followers for the unreliable initiator with highest social status are greater than the ones of the unreliable initiator with lowest social status. Our results suggest an existing relationship between having a high social status and a leadership role. Indeed, the status of a leader sometimes prevail at the detriment of the accuracy of the information, because an elevated social status apparently confers a high level of trust.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Valenchon-et-al-2022.pdf (624.88 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)

Dates et versions

hal-03818611 , version 1 (26-10-2022)

Identifiants

Citer

Mathilde Valenchon, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Anna Nesterova, Odile Petit. Does a high social status confer greater levels of trust from groupmates? An experimental study of leadership in domestic horses. Behavioural Processes, 2022, 201, pp.1-8. ⟨10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104708⟩. ⟨hal-03818611⟩
19 Consultations
43 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More