Project description
Chimpanzees help unravel social bonding processes
Parenting style has a significant impact on the development of children’s social skills, mental health, and overall well-being. However, the precise physical and social processes involved in this influence remain unknown in humans due to the necessity of continuous behavioural observation. With this in mind, the ERC-funded ApeAttachment project aims to shed light on these processes by studying a cohort of chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. By using methods from anthropology, biology, and psychology, it will investigate animal behaviour, revealing the intricate interplay between internal factors such as immunity and hormones, hereditary factors, and behaviour. The findings will shed light on how these factors impact cognition, adaptation to the environment, and affiliative relationships throughout an individual's lifespan.
Objective
Social bonding success in life impacts on health, survival and fitness. It is proposed that early and later social experience as well as heritable factors determine social bonding abilities in adulthood, although the relative influence of each is unclear. In humans, the resulting uncertainty likely impedes psychological and psychiatric assessment and therapy. One problem hampering progress for human studies is that social bonding success is hard to objectively quantify, particularly in adults. I propose to directly address this problem by determining the key influences on social bonding abilities in chimpanzees, our closest living relative, where social bonding success can be objectively quantified, and is defined as number of affiliative relationships maintained over time with high rates of affiliation.
Objectives. This project will quantify the relative impact of early and later social experience as well as heritable factors on social hormone levels, social cognition and social bonding success in 270 wild and captive chimpanzees, using both cohort and longitudinal data. This will reveal the degree of plasticity in social cognition and bonding behaviour throughout life. Finally, it will evaluate the potential for using endogenous hormone levels as non-invasive biomarkers of social bonding success, as well as identifying social contexts that act as strong natural social hormone releasers.
Outcomes. This project will expose what makes some better at social bonding than others. Specifically, it will show the extent to which later social experience can compensate for early social experience or heritable factors in terms of adult social bonding success, the latter being a key factor in determining health and happiness in life. This project also offers the potential for using hormonal biomarkers in clincial settings, as objective assessment of changes in relationships over time, and in therapy by engaging in social behaviours that act as strong social hormone releasers.
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Funding Scheme
ERC-STG - Starting GrantHost institution
80539 Munchen
Germany