Emerging infectious disease and the challenges of social distancing in human and non-human animals

Townsend, Andrea K.; Hawley, Dana M.; Stephenson, Jessica F.; Williams, Keelah E. G.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1039

Cited by 63 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 101 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The risk of pathogen transmission can also influence relationship differentiation through a reduction in the frequency or types of social interactions with sick individuals. Under a high risk of pathogen transmission, group members should actively avoid sick individuals when possible, as an adaptive response to reduce infection [57] and may practice social distancing by more generally limiting their social interactions to a few key partners [58,59] as a trade-off between the benefits of social interactions and the potential costs of socializing in an environment with high pathogen prevalence [11]. For example, healthy mice reduce social interactions with parasite-infected mice, but not with other healthy individuals [60].…”

Section: (D) Component 4: Constraints On Social Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How socio-ecological factors influence the differentiation of social relationships: an integrated conceptual framework

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The extent of differentiation of social relationships within groups is a means to assess social complexity, with greater differentiation indicating greater social complexity. Socio-ecological factors are likely to influence social complexity, but no attempt has been made to explain the differentiation of social relationships using multiple socio-ecological factors. Here, we propose a conceptual framework based on four components underlying multiple socio-ecological factors that influence the differentiation of social relationships: the extent of within-group contest competition to access resources, the extent to which individuals differ in their ability to provide a variety of services, the need for group-level cooperation and the constraints on social interactions. We use the framework to make predictions about the degree of relationship differentiation that can be expected within a group according to the cumulative contribution of multiple socio-ecological factors to each of the four components. The framework has broad applicability, since the four components are likely to be relevant to a wide range of animal taxa and to additional socio-ecological factors not explicitly dealt with here. Hence, the framework can be used as the basis for the development of novel and testable hypotheses about intra- and interspecific differences in relationship differentiation and social complexity.

show abstract

Section: (D) Component 4: Constraints On Social Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How socio-ecological factors influence the differentiation of social relationships: an integrated conceptual framework

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Block et al, 2020), we focus our review on nonhuman animals for brevity, while recognizing that the concepts discussed here can be extended to all social taxa and their parasites (e.g. Townsend et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Akin to parasite-induced changes in social behaviour via ecological processes (Arrow B), the social behaviours of both infected and uninfected individuals can evolve in response to parasites (Townsend et al, 2020). Here, we focus on evolutionary changes in the social behaviours of uninfected hosts that are likely to reduce the fitness costs imposed by their socially transmitted parasites.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bidirectional interactions between host social behaviour and parasites arise through ecological and evolutionary processes

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An animal's social behaviour both influences and changes in response to its parasites. Here we consider these bidirectional links between host social behaviours and parasite infection, both those that occur from ecological vs evolutionary processes. First, we review how social behaviours of individuals and groups influence ecological patterns of parasite transmission. We then discuss how parasite infection, in turn, can alter host social interactions by changing the behaviour of both infected and uninfected individuals. Together, these ecological feedbacks between social behaviour and parasite infection can result in important epidemiological consequences. Next, we consider the ways in which host social behaviours evolve in response to parasites, highlighting constraints that arise from the need for hosts to maintain benefits of sociality while minimizing fitness costs of parasites. Finally, we consider how host social behaviours shape the population genetic structure of parasites and the evolution of key parasite traits, such as virulence. Overall, these bidirectional relationships between host social behaviours and parasites are an important yet often underappreciated component of population-level disease dynamics and host–parasite coevolution.

show abstract

“…Unlike vaccination, social distancing effort of an individual requires repeated decisions whether or not to comply by evaluating the necessity of doing so throughout the epidemic, despite public health recommendations or even mandates [ 27 ]. The cost of social distancing is not negligible, but rather has a huge impact on the economic status and well-being of people [ 28 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oscillatory dynamics in the dilemma of social distancing

Glaubitz

2020

Proc. R. Soc. A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social distancing as one of the main non-pharmaceutical interventions can help slow down the spread of diseases, like in the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective social distancing, unless enforced as drastic lockdowns and mandatory cordon sanitaire, requires consistent strict collective adherence. However, it remains unknown what the determinants for the resultant compliance of social distancing and their impact on disease mitigation are. Here, we incorporate into the epidemiological process with an evolutionary game theory model that governs the evolution of social distancing behaviour. In our model, we assume an individual acts in their best interest and their decisions are driven by adaptive social learning of the real-time risk of infection in comparison with the cost of social distancing. We find interesting oscillatory dynamics of social distancing accompanied with waves of infection. Moreover, the oscillatory dynamics are dampened with a non-trivial dependence on model parameters governing decision-makings and gradually cease when the cumulative infections exceed the herd immunity. Compared to the scenario without social distancing, we quantify the degree to which social distancing mitigates the epidemic and its dependence on individuals’ responsiveness and rationality in their behaviour changes. Our work offers new insights into leveraging human behaviour in support of pandemic response.

show abstract

Emerging infectious disease and the challenges of social distancing in human and non-human animals

Cited by 63 publications

References 101 publications

How socio-ecological factors influence the differentiation of social relationships: an integrated conceptual framework

How socio-ecological factors influence the differentiation of social relationships: an integrated conceptual framework

Bidirectional interactions between host social behaviour and parasites arise through ecological and evolutionary processes

Oscillatory dynamics in the dilemma of social distancing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About