African ape social structure: Is there strength in weak ties?

Maryanski, Alexandra

doi:10.1016/0378-8733(87)90020-7

Cited by 78 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Hypotheses derived from network exchange theory would probably have been successful in the EEA, while those derived from noncooperative game theory and public choice theory would not have been. Perhaps the strongest indication for this is that network exchange theory has been tested and supported with nonhuman primate species (Maryanski, 1987;Maryanski and Ishii-Kuntz, 1991). It is therefore likely that scope conditions and assumptions of network exchange theory held true even before the EEA in the evolutionary history of primates, before our ancestors were human.…”

Section: Counterexample: Network Exchange Theorymentioning

confidence: 92%

The Savanna Principle

Kanazawa

2003

Manage Decis Econ

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Why do microeconomic theories (such as decision theory and game theory) often fail to predict human behavior despite their mathematical elegance and deductive rigor? I suggest that such empirical failures stem from the theory's misconception of how the human brain functions. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, I propose the Savanna Principle, which posits that a hypothesis about human behavior fails to the extent that its scope conditions and assumptions are inconsistent with the ancestral environment, and its experimental corollary, that the Savanna Principle holds (and the hypothesis fails) to the extent that the conditions of the experiment resemble the ancestral environment. I suggest that the Savanna Principle and its corollary might together explain the relative empirical failure of noncooperative game theory and public choice theory, and the relative success of network exchange theory and competitive price theory tested in double auction markets in experimental economics. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Section: Counterexample: Network Exchange Theorymentioning

confidence: 92%

The Savanna Principle

Kanazawa

2003

Manage Decis Econ

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“…It has been suggested that weak ties become increasingly important in socially more complex systems, because they link otherwise unlinked subgroups (Maryanski 1987). Although, in general, removing the most central female (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network cohesion, group size and neocortex size in female-bonded Old World primates

Lehmann

Dunbar

2009

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Most primates are intensely social and spend a large amount of time servicing social relationships. In this study, we use social network analysis to examine the relationship between primate group size, total brain size, neocortex ratio and several social network metrics concerned with network cohesion. Using female grooming networks from a number of Old World monkey species, we found that neocortex size was a better predictor of network characteristics than endocranial volumes. We further found that when we controlled for group size, neocortex ratio was negatively correlated with network density, connectivity, relative clan size and proportional clan membership, while there was no effect of neocortex ratio on change in connectivity following the removal of the most central female in the network. Thus, in species with larger neocortex ratios, females generally live in more fragmented networks, belong to smaller grooming clans and are members of relatively fewer clans despite living in a closely bonded group. However, even though groups are more fragmented to begin with among species with larger neocortices, the removal of the most central individual does cause groups to fall apart, suggesting that social complexity may ultimately involve the management of highly fragmented social groups while at the same time maintaining overall social cohesion. These results emphasize a need for more detailed brain data on a wider sample of primate species.

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“…Additionally, primates are highly intelligent, slow to mature and long-lived, with elaborate behavioral repertoires that are mostly acquired through observation and imitation. And, finally, like their human counterparts, most primates are social mammals, with strong propensities for forming affiliative network ties that are organized around leisure and such maintenance duties as food procurement, care and protection of dependent offspring, defense, courtship, mating, and reproduction (for discussions see Cheney, Seyfarth, and Smuts 1986;Hinde 1983;Cheney and Seyfarth 1990;Maryanski 1987Maryanski , 1988Rhine and Maryanski n.d.;and Jolly 1985).…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

A Cross-Species Application of Bott's Hypothesis on Role Segregation and Social Networks

Maryanski

Ishii‐Kuntz

1991

Sociological Perspectives

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Elizabeth Bott's hypothesis that the degree of rolesegregation between husbands and wives is a function of the density in family networks is applied to a review of social relations among representative species from seven genera of Old World primates. On the whole, the hypothesis is supported. In seeking to apply Bott's ideas to primate research, her theory is formalized and stated more abstractly, with the result that its structural dynamics are highlighted. These structural processes revolve around three phenomena: (a) the negative causal effect of network overlap on density of each actor's networks; (b) the positive causal effect of network density on the degree of social support provided by, and a normative elaboration of, each actor's networks; and (c) the causal effect of social support and normative elaboration on the segregation of each actor's activities.

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African ape social structure: Is there strength in weak ties?

Cited by 78 publications

References 26 publications

The Savanna Principle

The Savanna Principle

Network cohesion, group size and neocortex size in female-bonded Old World primates

A Cross-Species Application of Bott's Hypothesis on Role Segregation and Social Networks

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