Why do individuals cooperate? Exploring the behavioural, cognitive, and hormonal mechanisms governing cooperation in macaques.

Descripción del proyecto

Estudio sobre la cooperación entre los macacos

¿Qué lleva a las personas y los animales a cooperar y seleccionar parejas específicas durante las interacciones de cooperación? La respuesta podría encontrarse en una serie de mecanismos próximos que facilitan la cooperación. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos CooPMacaque investigará cuatro variables: personalidad, prosocialidad, relaciones de orden jerárquico e interacciones hormonales. El objetivo es comprender cómo ha evolucionado la cooperación. En esta investigación participarán cien monos pertenecientes a cinco especies de macacos («Macaca mulatta», «M. fuscata», «M. fasicularis», «M. sylvanus» y «M. silenus»), los cuales serán evaluados en sus grupos sociales, dentro de un entorno de semilibertad. Más concretamente, el proyecto examinará en qué medida las similitudes en la personalidad y las relaciones de orden jerárquico influyen sobre la elección de pareja. Investigará si las motivaciones prosociales de los individuos inician y potencian las interacciones de cooperación, además de analizar los efectos sobre la cooperación de las interacciones entre la oxitocina periférica, la testosterona y el cortisol.

Objetivo

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.