Intergroup conflict and the development of cooperation in juvenile vervet monkeys
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Date
2024
Authors
Clarke, Madison
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Psychology
Abstract
Little is known of the mechanisms that maintain risky cooperative behaviours in the
absence of linguistically acquired cultural and social norms. This is especially the case
when considering non-adult individuals who are theoretically assumed to be risk-averse,
yet still incur the risks associated with cooperation. Using observational data from three
troops of habituated wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) and multilevel
Bayesian models, I tested three explanations of how non-adult individuals in a non-
linguistic species come to cooperate by participating in intergroup conflict. I first
explored how individual attributes, social network position, and situational factors
influence the likelihood and intensity of participation. I also tested how participation in
intergroup conflict predicts whether non-adults will be groomed and if they will be
groomed by their mothers. Thirdly, I investigated how similarities in intragroup social
network and intergroup conflict participation network structures vary between the sexes
across time. Overall, I found that non-adult participation in intergroup conflict is
regulated by a myriad of individual, social, and situational factors.
Description
Keywords
Intergroup conflict , Vervet monkeys , Cooperative behaviors , Non-adult monkeys