scholarly journals Function of Trunk-Mediated “Greeting” Behaviours between Male African Elephants: Insights from Choice of Partners

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie R. B. Allen ◽  
Darren P. Croft ◽  
Camille Testard ◽  
Lauren J. N. Brent
Keyword(s):  
Emotional State ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
African Elephants ◽  
Genital Region ◽  
Sexual Status ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
Over Time

A common behavioural interaction between male African elephants is for an actor to direct his trunk to contact a same sex conspecific’s mouth, temporal gland, or genital region. Such behaviours are often referred to as “greetings”. Along with its inherent tactile element, these behaviours also likely provide olfactory information to actors concerning aspects of the target’s phenotype, including sexual status, feeding history, individual identity, and emotional state. Here, we explore whether the age and novelty of potential interactors affect the choice of individuals targeted by male African elephants for these trunks to scent emitting organ (SEO) behaviours at social hotspots in a male-dominated area. Male elephants of all ages, except older adolescents aged 16–20 years, preferentially targeted elephants of the same age class for trunk-to-SEO behaviours. Elephants younger than 26 years did not direct trunk-to-SEO behaviours to mature bulls (26+ years) more than expected by chance, suggesting these behaviours are not primarily used for younger males to establish contact with, or obtain information from or about older, more experienced individuals. We also found no evidence that males directed these behaviours preferentially to new individuals they encountered at male aggregations (compared to those they arrived in groups with), suggesting these behaviours are not primarily employed by males as a reunion display to establish relationships between new individuals or update relationships between familiar individuals separated over time. Age-mates may be preferentially targeted with these behaviours as a means to facilitate further interaction with partners (e.g., for sparring activity), or as a safe way to assess relative dominance rank in similarly aged and hence, size and strength, matched dyads. Our results suggest male African elephants use close contact trunk-to-SEO behaviours continuously over time, to facilitate positive relationships, test willingness to interact, and assess aspects of phenotype, between males occupying the same ecological space.

Impacts of Social Distancing on Pedestrian Behavior and Risk Perception

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1302-1306
Author(s):  
Kyra B. Phillips ◽  
Kelly N. Byrne ◽  
Branden S. Kolarik ◽  
Audra K. Krake ◽  
Young C. Bui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Pedestrian Behavior ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Over Time

Since COVID-19 transmission accelerated in the United States in March 2020, guidelines have recommended that individuals wear masks and limit close contact by remaining at least six feet away from others, even while outdoors. Such behavior is important to help slow the spread of the global pandemic; however, it may require pedestrians to make critical decisions about entering a roadway in order to avoid others, potentially creating hazardous situations for both themselves and for drivers. In this survey study, we found that while overall patterns of self-reported pedestrian activity remained largely consistent over time, participants indicated increased willingness to enter active roadways when encountering unmasked pedestrians since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Participants also rated the risks of encountering unmasked pedestrians as greater than those associated with entering a street, though the perceived risk of passing an unmasked pedestrian on the sidewalk decreased over time.

scholarly journals Social affiliation matters: both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships predict survival in wild female baboons

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1793) ◽  
pp. 20141261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Archie ◽  
Jenny Tung ◽  
Michael Clark ◽  
Jeanne Altmann ◽  
Susan C. Alberts
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Limited Resource ◽  
Adult Survival ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Wild Female ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Socially Isolated

Social integration and support can have profound effects on human survival. The extent of this phenomenon in non-human animals is largely unknown, but such knowledge is important to understanding the evolution of both lifespan and sociality. Here, we report evidence that levels of affiliative social behaviour (i.e. ‘social connectedness’) with both same-sex and opposite-sex conspecifics predict adult survival in wild female baboons. In the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya, adult female baboons that were socially connected to either adult males or adult females lived longer than females who were socially isolated from both sexes—females with strong connectedness to individuals of both sexes lived the longest. Female social connectedness to males was predicted by high dominance rank, indicating that males are a limited resource for females, and females compete for access to male social partners. To date, only a handful of animal studies have found that social relationships may affect survival. This study extends those findings by examining relationships to both sexes in by far the largest dataset yet examined for any animal. Our results support the idea that social effects on survival are evolutionarily conserved in social mammals.

scholarly journals Engineering Emotionally Intelligent Agents

2011 ◽  
pp. 99-117
Author(s):  
Penny Baillie ◽  
Mark Toleman ◽  
Dickson Lukose
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Intelligent Agents ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Emotionally Intelligent ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

Interacting with intelligence in an ever-changing environment calls for exceptional performances from artificial beings. One mechanism explored to produce intuitive-like behavior in artificial intelligence applications is emotion. This chapter examines the engineering of a mechanism that synthesizes and processes an artificial agent’s internal emotional states: the Affective Space. Through use of the affective space, an agent can predict the effect certain behaviors will have on its emotional state and, in turn, decide how to behave. Furthermore, an agent can use the emotions produced from its behavior to update its beliefs about particular entities and events. This chapter explores the psychological theory used to structure the affective space, the way in which the strength of emotional states can be diminished over time, how emotions influence an agent’s perception, and the way in which an agent can migrate from one emotional state to another.

Paternal Relationships With Sons and Daughters

2021 ◽  
pp. 331-354
Author(s):  
Lambrianos Nikiforidis
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
The Family ◽  
The One ◽  
Parental Bias ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines paternal relationships with sons and daughters. Identity drives investment (and parental investment in particular), because people invest in that which aligns with their identity. And biological sex drives identity. These two ideas combined imply that a parent-offspring match in biological sex can influence parental favoritism in a systematic manner, an idea supported by recent empirical studies. This parental bias of concordant-sex favoritism can have broad implications, outside the context of the traditional family structure. In single parent or same-sex parent households, the consequences of this bias can be even stronger, because there would not be an opposite-direction bias from the other parent to even things out. This favoritism could have even broader ramifications, entirely outside the context of the family. On the one hand, whenever social norms dictate that men should control a family’s financial decisions, then sons may systematically receive more resources than daughters. This asymmetry in investment would then result in ever-increasing advantages that persist over time. On the other hand, if women are a family’s primary shoppers, this can manifest in subtle but chronic favoritism for daughters.

Get It Together

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Levey ◽  
Holly Harper
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Close Encounter ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Group Consciousness ◽  
Adult Readers ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
The Individual

This essay begins fittingly with the line “If there’s one thing you can depend upon during the zombie apocalypse, it’s that you won’t have to face it alone.” In this essay, Levey and Harper examine the importance of group dynamics in contemporary teen novels that concentrate on surviving zombie invasions. Focusing on two recently published horror novels popular among teens, Charlie Higson’s The Enemy and Michael Grant’s Gone, Levey and Harper examine the “considerations of group consciousness and democratic dynamics” in the texts, noting that such attention to the group is a departure from previous teen novels that had focused more on negotiations of individual identity (this also marks a difference from the novels McCort examines, suggesting the different approach toward identity taken by those writing for older adolescents). For Levey and Harper, the importance of these particular novels and their treatment of the individual in relation to the group is twofold: they ask the characters therein to work through personal issues that are detrimental to the survival of the group and they call for social re-evaluation. In the worlds of The Enemy and Gone, young adult readers experience a close encounter with monstrous humanity, one that allows them to vicariously experience how others deal with threats external to their circles, as well as the threats that lie within themselves and their own peer groups.

Family Provision in New Zealand and Australia

2020 ◽  
pp. 450-476
Author(s):  
Nicola Peart ◽  
Prue Vines
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Sex Partners ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Reproductive Techniques ◽  
The Common ◽  
Over Time

New Zealand and Australia are named in that order in the title because New Zealand was the first to develop the discretionary family provision jurisdiction, in 1900, that now applies in New Zealand, Australia, and much of the common law world. This allows courts to make awards to family members from the estate of the deceased. Originally benefitting only the surviving spouse and children, family provision has extended the rules of eligibility in line with changes in the meaning of ‘family’. So as well as spouses, claims can also, in many of the Australasian jurisdictions, be made by civil partners, cohabitants, and same-sex partners. Most jurisdictions have also broadened the class of eligible children to include grandchildren and stepchildren who were being maintained by the deceased as well as children born of new reproductive techniques. Both New Zealand and Australia have significant indigenous populations and their eligibility to claim family provision is modified to accord with their customary law. Over time, the courts have adopted a much broader view of a deceased’s ‘moral duty’ to his or her family, particularly in regard to claims by adult children. The size of awards has increased correspondingly. The chapter discusses this development, as well as the increasing relevance of Indigenous customary law and how the courts deal with disentitling conduct. In view of the greatly expanded scope of family provision in New Zealand and Australia, testamentary freedom may be only an illusion in these jurisdictions.

Sexual Identity Development and Synthesis among LGB-Identified and LGB Dis-Identified Persons

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Yarhouse ◽  
Erica S. N. Tan ◽  
Lisa M. Pawlowski
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Multiple Outcomes ◽  
Sexual Identity Development ◽  
Religiously Affiliated ◽  
Sex Attraction ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Identity Synthesis

What are the key milestone events that facilitate sexual identity among persons who experience same-sex attraction? Do those milestone events lead to one outcome, or are multiple outcomes possible with respect to how sexual identity develops and synthesizes over time? This initial pilot study compared 14 religiously-affiliated persons who integrated their experiences of same-sex attraction into a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) identity synthesis, with 14 religiously-affiliated persons who dis-identified with a LGB-affirming ideology and pursued an alternative identity synthesis. We identified influences that facilitated an individual identifying with LGB-affirming ideologies and the individuals/subcultures that embrace such ideologies, and influences that facilitated an individual dis-identifying with LGB-affirming ideologies and the individuals/subcultures that embrace such ideologies.

How the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey and the 2017 Queensland state election underscore the ‘two Queenslands’ thesis

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Niels Kraaier
Keyword(s):  
Postal Survey ◽  
The State ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
The South ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Over Time

AbstractBased on an analysis of the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey results and the results of the 2017 Queensland state election, this paper observes that residents of the south-east corner of the state appear to adopt feminine values as opposed to the masculinity for which Queensland is known. The results underscore the ‘two Queenslands’ thesis, which posits that the single geographic state of Queensland has cleaved over time into two entities quite distinct in their economic, political, social and cultural form. Moreover, they add fuel to the debate about secession. As residents of the south-east continue to develop their own identity, the desire for a state of South-East Queensland could at some point become a realistic scenario.

The Differentiation of Coping Traits in Adolescence

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Kavsěk ◽  
Inge Seiffge-Krenke
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Avoidance Coping ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Cognitive Components ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
Over Time

The present study investigates the process of coping with daily problems during adolescence. Coping is conceptualised as a trait-like construct and, as such, is seen as being stable over time. This assumption is tested by constructing coping factors for two different age groups of adolescents (11- to 16 year-olds vs. 17- to 19-year-olds). According to the results, the younger subjects use approach and avoidance coping factors. However, for the older adolescents, the approach dimension is differentiated into behavioural and cognitive components, whereas the avoidance dimension remains the same. The results also indicate that the girls in both age groups have significantly higher values in approach-oriented coping than boys.

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