scholarly journals Social context modulates idiosyncrasy of behaviour in the gregarious cockroach Blaberus discoidalis

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Crall ◽  
Andre Souffrant ◽  
Dominic Akandwanaho ◽  
Sawyer Hescock ◽  
Sarah Callan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Group Composition ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Light Stimulus ◽  
Avoidance Performance ◽  
Blaberus Discoidalis ◽  
Group Context ◽  
Light Avoidance ◽  
Level Performance

Individuals are different, but they can work together to perform adaptive collective behaviours. Despite emerging evidence that individual variation strongly affects group performance, it is less clear to what extent individual variation is modulated by participation in collective behaviour. We examined light avoidance (negative phototaxis) in the gregarious cockroach Blaberus discoidalis, in both solitary and group contexts. Cockroaches in groups exhibit idiosyncratic light-avoidance performance that persists across days, with some individual cockroaches avoiding a light stimulus 75% of the time, and others avoiding the light just above chance (i.e. ~50% of the time). These individual differences are robust to group composition. Surprisingly, these differences do not persist when individuals are tested in isolation, but return when testing is once again done with groups. During the solo testing phase cockroaches exhibited individually consistent light-avoidance tendencies, but these differences were uncorrelated with performance in any group context. Therefore, we have observed not only that individual variation affects group-level performance, but also that whether or not a task is performed collectively can have a significant, predictable effect on how an individual behaves. That individual behavioural variation is modulated by whether a task is performed collectively has major implications for understanding variation in behaviours that are facultatively social, and it is essential that ethologists consider social context when evaluating individual behavioural differences.

Group performance as a function of group type and group composition

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suresh Kanekar ◽  
Priya Neelakantan
Keyword(s):  
Group Composition ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Group Type

scholarly journals Colour plasticity in response to social context and parasitic infection in a self-fertilizing fish

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 181418
Author(s):  
Rebecca Jane Pawluk ◽  
Carlos Garcia de Leaniz ◽  
Joanne Cable ◽  
Bernard Tiddeman ◽  
Sofia Consuegra
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Genetic Background ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Parasitic Infection ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
Inbred Lines ◽  
Body Coloration ◽  
Pathogen Avoidance

Many animal species rely on changes in body coloration to signal social dominance, mating readiness and health status to conspecifics, which can in turn influence reproductive success, social dynamics and pathogen avoidance in natural populations. Such colour changes are thought to be controlled by genetic and environmental conditions, but their relative importance is difficult to measure in natural populations, where individual genetic variability complicates data interpretation. Here, we studied shifts in melanin-related body coloration in response to social context and parasitic infection in two naturally inbred lines of a self-fertilizing fish to disentangle the relative roles of genetic background and individual variation. We found that social context and parasitic infection had a significant effect on body coloration that varied between genetic lines, suggesting the existence of genotype by environment interactions. In addition, individual variation was also important for some of the colour attributes. We suggest that the genetic background drives colour plasticity and that this can maintain phenotypic variation in inbred lines, an adaptive mechanism that may be particularly important when genetic diversity is low.

scholarly journals Social context modulates idiosyncrasy of behaviour in the gregarious cockroach Blaberus discoidalis

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 297-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
James D. Crall ◽  
André D. Souffrant ◽  
Dominic Akandwanaho ◽  
Sawyer D. Hescock ◽  
Sarah E. Callan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Blaberus Discoidalis

Mediators of ethical leadership and group performance outcomes

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 484-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.C. Peng ◽  
Julian Lin
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Leadership ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Leadership Behaviors ◽  
Value Congruence ◽  
Performance Outcomes ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Group Trust ◽  
Level Performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ethical leadership and group-level performance outcomes and show that group value congruence and group trust play pivotal mediating roles in the relationship between ethical leadership and work group performance outcomes. Design/methodology/approach To examine the proposed model, survey data from 116 branches of a baked goods and beverages chain located in Northern Taiwan were analyzed. Findings The results revealed that ethical leadership was positively and significantly related to group in-role performance and group helping behavior; the relationship was fully mediated by group value congruence and group trust after controlling for idealized influence leadership. Research limitations/implications This study features a cross-sectional study design, thus limiting the accuracy of inferences about causality. Practical implications The results of the current study revealed that ethical leadership behaviors enhance group trust. Hence, these leadership behaviors could be among the best and most appropriate practices to be implemented in China and Taiwan. Originality/value The data suggested that ethical leadership was associated with not only individual-level behavior but also group-level performance. Furthermore, this paper also uncovered the mediation mechanism through which ethical leadership enhances group performance.

scholarly journals Multi-trait diversity of online groups improves geo-political forecasting accuracy as a function of group size

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niccolo Pescetelli ◽  
Alexis Rutherford ◽  
Iyad Rahwan
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Group Composition ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Online Groups ◽  
Consensus Forecasts ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
And Performance

Many modern interactions happen in a digital space, where automated recommendations and homophily can shape the composition of groups interacting together and the knowledge that groups are able to tap into when operating online. Digital interactions are also characterized by different scales, from small interest groups to large online communities. Here, we manipulate the composition of online groups based on a large multi-trait profiling space to explore the causal link between group composition and performance as a function of group size. We asked volunteers to search information online under time pressure and measured individual and group performance in forecasting real geo-political events. Our manipulation affected the correlation of forecasts made by people after online searches. Group composition interacts with group size so that diversity benefits individual and group performance proportionally to group size. Aggregating opinions of modular crowds composed of small independent groups achieved better results than using non-modular ones. Finally, we show differences existing among groups in terms of disagreement, speed to convergence to consensus forecasts and within-group variability in performance. The present work sheds light on the mechanisms underlying effective collaboration in digital environments.

scholarly journals Chimaeric load among sympatric social bacteria increases with genotype richness

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1787) ◽  
pp. 20140285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Mendes-Soares ◽  
I-Chen Kimberly Chen ◽  
Kara Fitzpatrick ◽  
Gregory J. Velicer
Keyword(s):  
Group Performance ◽  
Structured Populations ◽  
Kin Discrimination ◽  
Group Productivity ◽  
Total Group ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Behavioural Interactions ◽  
Total Productivity ◽  
Microbial Groups ◽  
Level Performance

The total productivity of social groups can be determined by interactions among their constituents. Chimaeric load—the reduction of group productivity caused by antagonistic within-group heterogeneity—may be common in heterogeneous microbial groups due to dysfunctional behavioural interactions between distinct individuals. However, some instances of chimaerism in social microbes can increase group productivity, thus making a general relationship between chimaerism and group-level performance non-obvious. Using genetically similar strains of the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus that were isolated from a single centimetre-scale patch of soil, we tested for a relationship between degree of chimaerism (genotype richness) and total group performance at social behaviours displayed by this species. Within-group genotype richness was found to correlate negatively with total group performance at most traits examined, including swarming in both predatory and prey-free environments and spore production during development. These results suggest that interactions between such neighbouring strains in the wild will tend to be mutually antagonistic. Negative correlations between group performance and average genetic distance among group constituents at three known social genes were not found, suggesting that divergence at other loci that govern social interaction phenotypes is responsible for the observed chimaeric load. The potential for chimaeric load to result from co-aggregation among even closely related neighbours may promote the maintenance and strengthening of kin discrimination mechanisms, such as colony-merger incompatibilities observed in M. xanthus . The findings reported here may thus have implications for understanding the evolution and maintenance of diversity in structured populations of soil microbes.

scholarly journals Changes of gene expression but not cytosine methylation are associated with plasticity of male parental care reflecting behavioural state, social context, and individual flexibility

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
CB Cunningham ◽  
L Ji ◽  
EC McKinney ◽  
KM Benowitz ◽  
RJ Schmitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Cytosine Methylation ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Behavioural State ◽  
Age Related

AbstractBehaviour is often on the front line of plasticity in response to different environments. At the genetic level, behavioural changes are likely to be associated with changes of gene expression. Most studies to date have focused on gene expression differences associated with discrete behavioural states reflecting development or age-related changes, such as honey bee castes. However, more rapidly flexible behaviour is often observed in response to social context or simple individual variation. The differences in genetic influences for the different forms of plasticity are poorly understood. In this study we contrasted gene expression during male parental care of the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides, in a factorial design. Male N. vespilloides males typically do not provide care when females are present. However, male care is inducible by the removing female and has parental effects equivalent to female care. We used this experimental manipulation to isolate gene expression and cytosine methylation associated with differences of behavioural state, differences of social context, or differences of individual flexibility for expressing care. The greatest number of differentially expressed genes was associated with behavioural state, followed by differences of social contexts, and lastly differences of individual variation. DNA methylation has been hypothesized to regulate the transcriptional architecture that regulates behavioural transitions. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying differences of cytosine methylation that were associated with differences of behavioural state and individual flexibility. Changes of cytosine methylation were not associated with changes of gene expression. Our results suggest a hierarchical association between gene expression and the different sources of variation that influence behaviour, but that this process is not controlled by DNA methylation despite reflecting levels of plasticity in behaviour. Our results further suggest that the extent that a behaviour is transient plays an underappreciated role in determining the molecular mechanisms that underpin the behaviour.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document