Are primates out of the market?

Sánchez-Amaro, Alejandro; Amici, Federica

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.09.020

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…Primate grooming has been interpreted as an important commodity that can be exchanged for other services [ 15 – 17 ]. Groomers can benefit immediately (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible decision-making in grooming partner choice in sooty mangabeys and chimpanzees

et al. 2018

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Living in permanent social groups forces animals to make decisions about when, how and with whom to interact, requiring decisions to be made that integrate multiple sources of information. Changing social environments can influence this decision-making process by constraining choice or altering the likelihood of a positive outcome. Here, we conceptualized grooming as a choice situation where an individual chooses one of a number of potential partners. Studying two wild populations of sympatric primate species, sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys) and western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), we tested what properties of potential partners influenced grooming decisions, including their relative value based on available alternatives and the social relationships of potential partners with bystanders who could observe the outcome of the decision. Across 1529 decision events, multiple partner attributes (e.g. dominance ranks, social relationship quality, reproductive state, partner sex) influenced choice. Individuals preferred to initiate grooming with partners of similar global rank, but this effect was driven by a bias towards partners with a high rank compared to other locally available options. Individuals also avoided grooming partners who had strong social relationships with at least one bystander. Results indicated flexible decision-making in grooming interactions in both species, based on a partner's value given the local social environment. Viewing partner choice as a value-based decision-making process allows researchers to compare how different species solve similar social problems.

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“…Primate grooming has been interpreted as an important commodity that can be exchanged for other services [ 15 – 17 ]. Groomers can benefit immediately (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible decision-making in grooming partner choice in sooty mangabeys and chimpanzees

et al. 2018

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“…Finally, all studies described above used different methods of data collection and analysis, which can influence results. Although such methodological inconsistencies have been perceived as weaknesses of current studies examining the biological market in primates (Sánchez‐Amaro & Amici, ), it can also be argued that the important behavioral principles should be highly robust to variation in experimental and analytical approaches.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While studies of grooming exchange for benefits have shown relatively consistent results, our understanding of proximate mechanisms remains limited. Sánchez‐Amaro and Amici () challenged the biological market approach, pointing to uncertainties regarding the time frame for exchange and animals’ cognitive skills as well as methodological issues, which stimulated debate in a series of subsequent papers (Dunayer & Berman, ; Kaburu & Newton‐Fischer, ; Sánchez‐Amaro & Amici, ). These studies indicate that broad patterns of grooming exchange for other benefits may actually combine several different behavioral mechanisms, which operate on different time scales and are underlain by different behavioral and cognitive mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex patterns of grooming and sexual activity in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

Lhota

Roubová

Gregorová

et al. 2019

American J Primatol

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Grooming in primates is often considered a "currency" that can be exchanged for other "services" or "commodities" such as reciprocal grooming, coalitionary support, infant handling, tolerance around food sources, active food sharing, or mating opportunities. Previous studies on primate grooming-for-sex exchange viewed the males as the demanding class, with the females as suppliers of mating opportunities.In this study, we examine the broader context of grooming-for-mating exchange in Barbary macaques in Gibraltar. Our data show that Barbary macaque males groom females with whom they are mating more frequently and for longer periods than other females, and the relationship between grooming and mating remains significant in both sexual and nonsexual contexts. In addition, females groomed males with whom they were mating more frequently and for longer periods than other males. In both sexes, grooming was observed to be far more frequent and to occur for longer durations in sexual compared to nonsexual contexts. We did not find any difference in grooming behavior between presexual and postsexual contexts. Our data suggest that there is no simple model to describe Barbary macaque grooming patterns in sexual contexts. Although our results are partly consistent with male use of grooming as payment for mating, broadly assessed grooming-mating patterns cannot be solely explained by a male-driven grooming-for-mating exchange.

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“…Indeed, the partner choice mechanism (as opposed to the “within‐dyad temporal contingency between events” mechanism assessed in this study) assumes that animals preferentially exchange services with some social partners than with others, based on their history of social interactions, even if no temporal contingency is found between the amount of services received and given in the short time (Jaeggi et al, ; Sabbatini, De Bortoli Vizioli, Visalberghi, & Schino, ; Schino et al, ; Tiddi, Aureli, Polizzi di Sorrentino, Janson, & Schino, ). For example, exchanges of amount of grooming given were balanced over longer time frames, without or with a weak contingency over short‐time frames in several non‐human primates [e.g., Gomes, Mundry, & Boesch, ; Majolo et al, ; Manson et al, ; Schino et al, , but see Sánchez‐Amaro and Amici, () for alternative explanations], including captive Barbary macaques [Carne et al, , but see Roubová et al, ]. These two mechanisms are both plausible to account for reciprocity in animals and are not mutually exclusive (Schino & Aureli, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of direct reciprocity, but not of indirect and generalized reciprocity, in the grooming exchanges of wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

Molesti

Majolo

2017

American J Primatol

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Reciprocity is one of the mechanisms that have been proposed to explain the exchange of social behaviors, such as grooming, in animals. Reciprocity assumes that individuals act as the donor and recipient of grooming and switch roles over time to balance the benefits and costs of this behavior. Three main patterns of reciprocity may follow a grooming given: (i) direct reciprocity, where the former recipient returns the grooming to the former donor; (ii) indirect reciprocity, where another individual returns the grooming to the former donor; and (iii) generalized reciprocity, where the former recipient returns the grooming to another individual. While there is evidence that direct reciprocity plays an important role in various species of animals, the role of indirect and generalized reciprocity is less clear and has been rarely analyzed. We tested the role of direct, indirect, and generalized reciprocity in explaining grooming exchanges of wild Barbary macaques, by analyzing the temporal contingency between giving and receiving grooming. We collected the occurrence and latency of the three types of grooming reciprocation during 1 hr long focal sessions run simultaneously on two partners who just stopped grooming (post-grooming session) or who were in proximity (i.e., within 1.5 m) without grooming each other (control session). We ran the analyses on 284 post-grooming and 63 control sessions. The results revealed a temporal contingency of grooming interactions exchanged according to direct reciprocity but not according to indirect or generalized reciprocity. Our results indicate that grooming distribution in Barbary macaques is partner-specific. We discuss the possible role of cognition and emotions in explaining direct reciprocity in animals.

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Are primates out of the market?

Cited by 29 publications

References 104 publications

Flexible decision-making in grooming partner choice in sooty mangabeys and chimpanzees

Flexible decision-making in grooming partner choice in sooty mangabeys and chimpanzees

Complex patterns of grooming and sexual activity in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

Evidence of direct reciprocity, but not of indirect and generalized reciprocity, in the grooming exchanges of wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

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