Individual differences in chimpanzee reconciliation relate to social switching behaviour

Abstract

In recent years, the presence of stable individual variation in animal behaviour has been corroborated by studies across a wide variety of taxa and research disciplines. Reconciliation, or postconflict affiliation between former opponents, is a behavioural domain in which individual differences have not been systematically studied. Using a long-term data set comprising over 2000 conflict and postconflict observations in two groups of outdoor-housed chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, we provide evidence for stable individual variation in reconciliation and test several hypotheses on how this postconflict mechanism relates to social switching behaviour. Results of generalized multilevel models revealed that individual differences remained a substantial source of variation in reconciliation after controlling for a number of situational variables (e.g. the nature of the relationship between opponents) shown by previous research to influence its occurrence. We further demonstrated a positive association between an individual's conciliatory tendency and three separate indices of social switching behaviour, proposing that individual differences in reconciliation may reflect a more fundamental motivation to switch between different social states. In addition to a discussion of potential motivational underpinnings, we provide an impetus for future work to consider how reconciliation relates to the broader constructs and themes identified within animal personality research. To the extent that individual differences in other aspects of conflict and postconflict repertoires exhibit temporal and cross-situational consistency, they too should inform our understanding of animal personalities. Delineating how these and other dimensions of sociality are in part driven by stable individual variation not only has implications for how social interactions themselves unfold, but ultimately for the fitness of the individuals therein

Associations between glucocorticoids and sociality across a continuum of vertebrate social behavior

“…Several of the behaviors in our categories of social behavior ( Figure 1) have already been shown to exhibit repeatable individual differences where some individuals exhibit more of the given social behavior than others regardless of circumstances or context. Proactivity has been shown to be repeatable over time (reviewed by Réale et al, 2007) and there are consistent individual differences in parental behavior (Budaev, Zworykin, & Mochek, 1999;Fairbanks, 1996;Maestripieri, 1993;Schwagmeyer & Mock, 2003), affiliative behavior (Seyfarth, Silk, & Cheney, 2012;Webb, Franks, Romero, Higgins, & de Waal, 2014), and alloparental behavior in cooperative breeders (Carter, English, & Clutton-Brock, 2014;English, Nakagawa, & Clutton-Brock, 2010). Furthermore, individual differences in measures of HPA-axis activity exist (Baugh, van Oers, Dingemanse, & Hau, 2014;Ellis, Jackson, & Boyce, 2006;Fletcher, Dantzer, & Boonstra, 2015) and has been observed to co-vary with different behavioral types (Carere et al, 2010;Cockrem, 2007;Koolhaas et al, 1999;Korte, Koolhaas, Wingfield, & McEwen, 2005).…”

Truth, control, and value motivations: the “what,” “how,” and “why” of approach and avoidance

“…Interestingly, the motivation to actively manage one’s environment has recently been posited as an important individual difference among chimpanzees. Analyses revealed that those animals who engage in the most task-switching—those animals who make the most active changes in managing the environment—are also the same individuals who engage in the most reconciliatory behavior following conflicts, a behavior that involves a great deal of monitoring and control ( Webb et al, 2014 ). Thus the “how” motivation (control) is not only an integral and basic part of approach/avoidance goal pursuit, it is an independent motivation deserving of study in its own right.…”

Friend or foe: reconciliation between males and females in wild chacma baboons

“…That some subjects in our study rarely reconciled, while others did so rather frequently, is an area that also warrants further study. Individual variation may reflect the variable quality of the relationships of different individuals (with higher reconcilers having more valuable bonds) or stable individual differences, as recently emphasized by work incorporating conflict management skills as a component of broader animal personality (Webb, Franks, Romero, Higgins, & de Waal, 2014;Webb, Romero, Franks, & de Waal, 2017;Webb & Verbeek, 2016).…”