Project description
Studying how the macaque monkeys cooperate
What influences people and animals to cooperate and select specific partners during cooperative interactions? The answer may lie within proximate mechanisms, which facilitate cooperation. The EU-funded CooPMacaque project will investigate four proxies: personality, prosociality, dominance rank relationships, and the interplay of hormones. The aim is to understand how cooperation evolved. The research will involve 100 monkeys belonging to 5 macaque species (Macaca mulatta, M. fuscata, M. fasicularis, M. Sylvanus and M. Silenus) that will be tested in their social groups in a semi-free-ranging environment. Specifically, the project will examine how similarities in personality and dominance rank relationships influence partner choice. It will investigate whether prosocial motivations of individuals initiate and enhance cooperative interaction as well as explore the impact of the interplay of peripheral oxytocin, testosterone and cortisol on cooperation.
Objective
A myriad of species including humans are social. Maintenance of sociality is based on cooperative interactions among individuals. Regardless of theories and empirical explanations, experimental evidence scarcity has rendered addressing the evolution of cooperation challenging. Ergo, little is known about what influences humans and other animals to cooperate and select specific partners during cooperative interactions. Proximate mechanisms facilitating cooperation can provide crucial information on its evolution and maintenance. In this project, I will focus on the following proxies - personality, prosociality, dominance rank-relationships, and the interplay of hormones - to understand how cooperation evolved, using ~100 individuals belonging to 5 macaque species (Macaca mulatta, M. fuscata, M. fasicularis, M. sylvanus, and M. silenus). I will examine - how similarities in personality and dominance-rank relationships influence partner choice; whether prosocial motivations of individuals initiate and enhance cooperative interaction; and the effect of the interplay of peripheral oxytocin, testosterone, and cortisol on cooperation. The innovative and new perspectives of the project include– a. avoiding anonymous/forced dyad testing - testing of macaques based on their intrinsic motivations to cooperate, thus, prioritising areas of ecological relevance such as partner choice; b. testing macaques in their social groups; c. testing in semi free-ranging environment. Hence, I will use an integrative, interdisciplinary, and comparative approach in the project. My existing expertise in social cognition and subsequent training during the fellowship will undoubtedly result in pioneering research output and scientific advancement in the area of cooperation dynamics. This project is the first attempt to study cooperation from an unexplored angle and will provide us with significant information on why cooperation evolved and how it is being maintained in social systems.
Fields of science
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
3584 CS Utrecht
Netherlands