Despotism promotes dyadic cooperation through enhanced interdependencies in non-human primate societies
Nature Communications, vol. 17
Abstract
Cooperation is the cornerstone of human societies, and its emergence is firmly linked to enhanced tolerance and egalitarianism. However, evidence of profuse cooperation in less tolerant and despotic societies challenges this predominant view. The overarching interdependency hypothesis may resolve the conundrum. It posits that group-level interdependencies, like strength in numbers in colonially nesting species or allomaternal care in cooperatively breeding species, promote indiscriminate cooperation through enhanced tolerance. Crucially, this hypothesis also predicts that dyadic interdependence like friendships, nepotistic biases, or coalitions, selectively enhance tolerance, fostering discriminate cooperation in despotic species. Species belonging to Macaca, which have a similar social organization, yet remarkable variation in tolerance, hierarchy steepness, nepotistic biases, and coalitionary tendencies, provide an opportunity for testing the interdependency hypothesis. In social group settings, we experimentally study cooperation, prosociality, and tolerance in six macaque species spanning a tolerance gradient. Our findings reveal high dyadic cooperation in despotic societies, yet this cooperation is restricted to a few partners. Dyadic prosociality, kinship, and tolerance positively predict cooperation. Further, our agent-based models demonstrate that despotic societies have fewer but more stable bonds and, thus, higher dyadic interdependencies than in egalitarian societies. Our results suggest that interdependencies facilitate the emergence and maintenance of cooperation.
Authors 24
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Debottam Bhattacharjee corresponding
City University of Hong Kong · Utrecht University
Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. bhattacharjee.debottam@gmail.com
Centre for Animal Health and Welfare, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR. bhattacharjee.debottam@gmail.com
Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR. bhattacharjee.debottam@gmail.com
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Linköping University · University of Zurich
Affiliation as printed
Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, IFM Biology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Utrecht University · Université de Strasbourg
Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Department of Ecology, Physiology & Ethology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
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Aeres University of Applied Sciences
Affiliation as printed
Department of Applied Biology, Aeres University of Applied Sciences, Almere, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Leiden University · University of Amsterdam
Affiliation as printed
ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Department of Evolutionary and Population Biology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Department of Evolutionary and Population Biology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Wageningen University & Research
Affiliation as printed
Behavioural Ecology Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Behavioral & Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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University of Turku · University of Jyväskylä
Affiliation as printed
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylän yliopisto, Finland
Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Turun Yliopisto, Finland
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Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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University of Antwerp · Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp
Affiliation as printed
Antwerp Zoo Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
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Utrecht University · Biomedical Primate Research Centre
Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Animal Science Department, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Department of Evolutionary and Population Biology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Utrecht University · Biomedical Primate Research Centre
Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Animal Science Department, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
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Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen corresponding
Utrecht University · Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. edwin_van_leeuwen@eva.mpg.de
Department for Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. edwin_van_leeuwen@eva.mpg.de
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Jorg J. M. Massen corresponding
Affiliation as printed
Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. j.j.m.massen@uu.nl
Royal Rotterdam Zoological & Botanical Gardens, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. j.j.m.massen@uu.nl
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