scholarly journals Collective behaviour is not robust to disturbance, yet parent and offspring colonies resemble each other in social spiders

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Fisher ◽  
James L.L. Lichtenstein ◽  
Raul Costa-Pereira ◽  
Justin Yeager ◽  
Jonathan N. Pruitt
Keyword(s):  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Natural Conditions ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
The Social ◽  
Parent Colony ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Stability

AbstractGroups of animals possess phenotypes such as collective behaviour, which may determine the fitness of group members. However, the stability and robustness to perturbations of collective phenotypes in natural conditions is not established. Furthermore, whether group phenotypes are transmitted from parent to offspring groups is required for understanding how selection on group phenotypes contributes to evolution, but parent-offspring resemblance at the group level is rarely estimated. We evaluated robustness to perturbation and parent-offspring resemblance of collective foraging aggressiveness in colonies of the social spider Anelosimus eximius. Among-colony differences in foraging aggressiveness were consistent over time but changed if the colony was perturbed through the removal of individuals, or via their removal and subsequent return. Offspring and parent colony behaviour were correlated, but only once the offspring colony had settled after being translocated. The parent-offspring resemblance was not driven by a shared elevation but could be due to other environmental factors. Laboratory collective behaviour was not correlated with behaviour in the field. Colony aggression seems sensitive to initial conditions and easily perturbed between behavioural states. Despite this sensitivity, offspring colonies have collective behaviour that resembles that of their parent colony, provided they are given enough time to settle into the environment.

scholarly journals Personality composition is more important than group size in determining collective foraging behaviour in the wild

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1796) ◽  
pp. 20141424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl N. Keiser ◽  
Jonathan N. Pruitt
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Nest Architecture ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
The Social ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Behavioural Phenotypes ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
Animal Societies

Describing the factors that shape collective behaviour is central to our understanding of animal societies. Countless studies have demonstrated an effect of group size in the emergence of collective behaviours, but comparatively few have accounted for the composition/diversity of behavioural phenotypes, which is often conflated with group size. Here, we simultaneously examine the effect of personality composition and group size on nest architecture and collective foraging aggressiveness in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola . We created colonies of two different sizes (10 or 30 individuals) and four compositions of boldness (all bold, all shy, mixed bold and shy, or average individuals) in the field and then measured their collective behaviour. Larger colonies produced bigger capture webs, while colonies containing a higher proportion of bold individuals responded to and attacked prey more rapidly. The number of attackers during collective foraging was determined jointly by composition and size, although composition had an effect size more than twice that of colony size: our results suggest that colonies of just 10 bold spiders would attack prey with as many attackers as colonies of 110 ‘average’ spiders. Thus, personality composition is a more potent (albeit more cryptic) determinant of collective foraging in these societies.

scholarly journals The legacy effects of keystone individuals on collective behaviour scale to how long they remain within a group

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1814) ◽  
pp. 20151766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan N. Pruitt ◽  
Noa Pinter-Wollman
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Legacy Effects ◽  
Social Spider ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Individual

The collective behaviour of social groups is often strongly influenced by one or few individuals, termed here ‘keystone individuals’. We examined whether the influence of keystone individuals on collective behaviour lingers after their departure and whether these lingering effects scale with their tenure in the group. In the social spider, Stegodyphus dumicola , colonies' boldest individuals wield a disproportionately large influence over colony behaviour. We experimentally manipulated keystones' tenure in laboratory-housed colonies and tracked their legacy effects on collective prey capture following their removal. We found that bolder keystones caused more aggressive collective foraging behaviour and catalysed greater inter-individual variation in boldness within their colonies. The longer keystones remained in a colony, the longer both of these effects lingered after their departure. Our data demonstrate that, long after their disappearance, keystones have large and lasting effects on social dynamics at both the individual and colony levels.

scholarly journals Task allocation and site fidelity jointly influence foraging regulation in honeybee colonies

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 170344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Mosqueiro ◽  
Chelsea Cook ◽  
Ramon Huerta ◽  
Jürgen Gadau ◽  
Brian Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Site Fidelity ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Resource Collection ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Colony Level ◽  
And Task

Variation in behaviour among group members often impacts collective outcomes. Individuals may vary both in the task that they perform and in the persistence with which they perform each task. Although both the distribution of individuals among tasks and differences among individuals in behavioural persistence can each impact collective behaviour, we do not know if and how they jointly affect collective outcomes. Here, we use a detailed computational model to examine the joint impact of colony-level distribution among tasks and behavioural persistence of individuals, specifically their fidelity to particular resource sites, on the collective trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones. We developed an agent-based model of foraging honeybees, parametrized by data from five colonies, in which we simulated scouts, who search the environment for new resources, and individuals who are recruited by the scouts to the newly found resources, i.e. recruits. We varied the persistence of returning to a particular food source of both scouts and recruits and found that, for each value of persistence, there is a different optimal ratio of scouts to recruits that maximizes resource collection by the colony. Furthermore, changes to the persistence of scouts induced opposite effects from changes to the persistence of recruits on the collective foraging of the colony. The proportion of scouts that resulted in the most resources collected by the colony decreased as the persistence of recruits increased. However, this optimal proportion of scouts increased as the persistence of scouts increased. Thus, behavioural persistence and task participation can interact to impact a colony's collective behaviour in orthogonal directions. Our work provides new insights and generates new hypotheses into how variations in behaviour at both the individual and colony levels jointly impact the trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones.

scholarly journals Give Them Fish or Teach Them to Fish? The Effects of Stability of Social Stratification and Forms of Help on Higher Socioeconomic Status Group Members’ Attitudes Towards Anti-Poverty Programs

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Jay P. Ferolino
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Socioeconomic Status Group ◽  
Social Identity Approach

Building on social identity approach and intergroup helping as status relations model, the current research examined the explored effects of stability of social stratification and forms of help on higher socioeconomic status (SES) members’ attitudes towards anti-poverty programs. Two studies were conducted in a 2 (social stratification stability) × 2 (forms of help) design on willingness to support anti-poverty programs. Study 1 examined the conditions of unstable and stable social stratification that might pattern differences in support of hypothetical anti-poverty programs construed as dependency-oriented or autonomy-oriented help. Study 2 replicated and extended study 1 by examining higher SES (subjective) participants’ attitudes towards the cash transfer programs (conditional vs. unconditional, which were determined by their perceptions of the stability of social stratification). Overall, the results of the two studies confirmed that attitudes towards anti-poverty programs could be construed as specific forms of help (dependency-oriented and/or autonomy-oriented help) depending on the nature of the intergroup relations (stability of the social stratification). Finally, the theoretical contribution of the current research is discussed.

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 Movement and conformity interact to establish local behavioural traditions in animal populations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Somveille ◽  
Josh A. Firth ◽  
Lucy M. Aplin ◽  
Damien R. Farine ◽  
Ben C. Sheldon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Diffusion Experiment ◽  
Cultural Diffusion ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
First Time ◽  
Animal Culture

ABSTRACTThe social transmission of information is critical to the emergence of animal culture. Two processes are predicted to play key roles in how socially-transmitted information spreads in animal populations: the movement of individuals across the landscape and conformist social learning. We develop a model that, for the first time, explicitly integrates these processes to investigate their impacts on the spread of behavioural preferences. Our results reveal a strong interplay between movement and conformity for determining whether local traditions establish across a landscape or whether a single preference dominates the whole population. The model is able to replicate a real-world cultural diffusion experiment in great tits Parus major, but also allows for a range of predictions for the emergence of animal culture under various initial conditions, habitat structure and strength of conformist bias to be made. Integrating social behaviour with ecological variation will be important for understanding the stability and diversity of culture in animals.

How the Distribution of Member Expectations Influences Cooperation and Competition in Groups: A Social Relations Model Analysis of Social Dilemmas

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1502-1518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared L. Ladbury ◽  
Verlin B. Hinsz
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Dilemmas ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Social Relations Model ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Projection ◽  
Group Outcomes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members

Group outcomes are difficult to model and predict using individual-level metrics. We use shared cognition concepts and the social relations model to predict cooperative group outcomes in two social dilemmas to test whether social projection or consensus among group members would best predict cooperation. Group-level variance components derived from the social relations model were used as indices of social projection and consensus. Groups played five rounds of two social dilemmas and predicted their partners’ behavior on the following round. Results demonstrate that participants expect other group members to respond to the situation like the participant will and that shared expectations predict less competitive group behavior, but only when group members’ expectations have little to no variance. This article demonstrates the utility of the social relations model in predicting group-level outcomes from individual inputs, as well as providing novel findings regarding the complex effects of shared expectations on collective outcomes.

scholarly journals Repeatable group differences in the collective behaviour of stickleback shoals across ecological contexts

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1872) ◽  
pp. 20172629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolle W. Jolles ◽  
Kate L. Laskowski ◽  
Neeltje J. Boogert ◽  
Andrea Manica
Keyword(s):  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Large Context ◽  
Social Familiarity ◽  
Group Variation ◽  
Group Members ◽  
And Function ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Animal Societies

Establishing how collective behaviour emerges is central to our understanding of animal societies. Previous research has highlighted how universal interaction rules shape collective behaviour, and that individual differences can drive group functioning. Groups themselves may also differ considerably in their collective behaviour, but little is known about the consistency of such group variation, especially across different ecological contexts that may alter individuals' behavioural responses. Here, we test if randomly composed groups of sticklebacks differ consistently from one another in both their structure and movement dynamics across an open environment, an environment with food, and an environment with food and shelter. Based on high-resolution tracking data of the free-swimming shoals, we found large context-associated changes in the average behaviour of the groups. But despite these changes and limited social familiarity among group members, substantial and predictable behavioural differences between the groups persisted both within and across the different contexts (group-level repeatability): some groups moved consistently faster, more cohesively, showed stronger alignment and/or clearer leadership than other groups. These results suggest that among-group heterogeneity could be a widespread feature in animal societies. Future work that considers group-level variation in collective behaviour may help understand the selective pressures that shape how animal collectives form and function.

Collective Self-Determination: How the Agent of Help Promotes Pride, Well-Being, and Support for Intergroup Helping

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 662-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma F. Thomas ◽  
Catherine E. Amiot ◽  
Winnifred R. Louis ◽  
Alice Goddard
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Self Determination Theory ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Group ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Social Identity Approach

This research integrates self-determination theory and the social identity approach to investigate the notion of collective (group level) self-determination, and to test how the agent of intergroup help (helping initiated by a group representative versus group members) shapes group members’ motives and support for intergroup helping. Study 1 ( N = 432) demonstrates that collective self-determination predicts support for intergroup helping, group pride, and well-being, over and above individual-level self-determined motivation. Study 2 ( N = 216) confirmed that helping by group members was seen as more collectively self-determined than helping by a group representative, producing effects on pride, well-being, and support. Study 3 ( N = 124) explores a qualifier of these effects: People who identify more strongly with the leader who is providing the help also experience representative helping as more collectively self-determined, thereby promoting well-being, group pride, and support. Findings highlight the value of integrating self-determination theory with intergroup theories to consider collective aspects of self-determination.

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