Mimic me while playing! Social tolerance and rapid facial mimicry in macaques (Macaca tonkeana and Macaca fuscata).

Abstract

Social play and tolerance are positively correlated and playful signals are more freely expressed in egalitarian than in despotic species. Macaque species are organized along a continuum from intolerant to tolerant social systems and, for this reason, they are good models to test some hypotheses about the possible linkage between communication and tolerance. We compared facial playful communication in 2 macaque species at opposite ends of the continuum: despotic Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, and tolerant Tonkean macaques, Macaca tonkeana. We predicted that tolerance has favored larger facial display repertoires and playful cooperative tendency. Moreover, we evaluated if tolerance could also reflect in the selection for emotional sharing expressed through rapid facial mimicry (RFM). RFM is an automatic, unconscious, and fast (<1 s) motor mirror response which favors emotional communication between subjects. Although M. fuscata and M. tonkeana performed play faces (PF) at comparable levels, only Tonkean macaques showed the phenomenon of RFM. The playful sessions characterized by RFM lasted longer than those characterized by the presence of playful signals perceived by a playmate but not followed by mimicry. Interestingly, the duration of playful sessions in Tonkean macaques overcame that of the sessions in Japanese macaques. It is likely that RFM improves communicative exchanges between the playmates and, at the same time, promotes behavioral coordination and cooperation in the sequence of actions. The tolerant nature of Tonkean macaques, also expressed in play, can foster RFM which, at the same time, positively enhances the propensity to cooperate in a sort of positive feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record

Calming an aggressor through spontaneous post‐conflict triadic contacts: Appeasement in Macaca tonkeana

“…Previous reports have concluded that Macaca tonkeana are sensitive to variations in the affective states of other group members (Palagi et al, ; Scopa & Palagi, ). In this species, opponents show a high rate of reconciliation (Demaria & Thierry, ) and third parties are reactive to conflicts that occur in the group, thus increasing the reciprocal affiliative interactions (De Marco et al, ).…”

Resource partitioning in tolerant and intolerant macaques

“…Agonistic and dominance behavior covaries with such traits as degree of maternal permissiveness, amount of alloparental care, form of social play, degree of kin preference among females, diversity of communicative signals, and personality dimensions (Adams et al, 2015;Ciani, Dall'Olio, Stanyon, & Palagi, 2012;Dobson, 2012;Petit, Bertrand, & Thierry, 2008;Scopa & Palagi, 2016;Thierry et al, 2008). There are also hints that in competitive situations, individuals from the more tolerant species can stay closer to each other more easily than their more intolerant counterparts, thus enabling more group members to access the same resources (Bélisle et al, 2012;de Waal & Luttrell, 1989;Matsumura, 2001;Petit, Desportes, & Thierry, 1992).…”

The coevolution of juvenile play–fighting and adult competition

“…Table summarizes variation in the style of play–fighting across these seven species, ranging from the despotic M. mulatta and M. fuscata to the egalitarian M. tonkeana and M. nigra . The general pattern is that egalitarian species, such as Tonkean macaques ( M. tonkeana ) and crested macaques ( M. nigra ), adopt a more cooperative style of social play than the competitive play–fighting seen in despotic species such as Japanese macaques ( M. fuscata ), with egalitarian species showing more reciprocal rough‐and‐tumble play (e.g., higher frequency of wrestling) and despotic species more cautious play (e.g., face‐to‐face body orientation between partners to avoid vulnerable positions; Ciani, Dall'Olio, Stanyon, & Palagi, ; Palagi et al., ; Petit et al., ; Reinhart, ; Reinhart et al., ; Scopa & Palagi, ; Thierry, , ). For example, Tonkean macaques engage in longer bouts of play and have a relatively cooperative style of play–fighting compared with the more competitive style of play–fighting in Japanese macaques, which involves different behavioural patterns and preferred body targets (Ciani et al., ; Reinhart et al., ).…”

“…(), 8 Reinhart et al. (), 9 Scopa and Palagi (), 10 Kipper and Todt (), and 11 Nickelson and Lockard ().…”

“…However, for seven of the 18 species classified by Thierry (2000), there are some data on the extent to which play-fighting is competitive or cooperative (Petit et al, 2008;Reinhart, 2008;Reinhart et al, 2010). Reinhart, 2008;Reinhart et al, 2010;Scopa & Palagi, 2016;Thierry, 1985Thierry, , 2000. For example, Tonkean macaques engage in longer bouts of play and have a relatively cooperative style of playfighting compared with the more competitive style of play-fighting in Japanese macaques, which involves different behavioural patterns and preferred body targets (Ciani et al, 2012;Reinhart et al, 2010).…”