Social Stomach

Karsai, István; Schmickl, Thomas

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_111-1

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Highly social animals by definition exhibit high levels of within-group cooperation, and as a result, can accumulate or generate valuable resources such as stores of food [7,8]. Their very success in doing so increases the potential for inter-group conflict: large groups need to continually acquire resources for maintenance and growth, and also the resources they hold make them attractive targets to other groups, meaning that resource-driven conflict between successful groups is likely [9].…”

Section: Inter-group Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

From inter-group conflict to inter-group cooperation: insights from social insects

Rodrigues

Barker

Robinson

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The conflict between social groups is widespread, often imposing significant costs across multiple groups. The social insects make an ideal system for investigating inter-group relationships, because their interaction types span the full harming–helping continuum, from aggressive conflict, to mutual tolerance, to cooperation between spatially separate groups. Here we review inter-group conflict in the social insects and the various means by which they reduce the costs of conflict, including individual or colony-level avoidance, ritualistic behaviours and even group fusion. At the opposite extreme of the harming–helping continuum, social insect groups may peacefully exchange resources and thus cooperate between groups in a manner rare outside human societies. We discuss the role of population viscosity in favouring inter-group cooperation. We present a model encompassing intra- and inter-group interactions, and local and long-distance dispersal. We show that in this multi-level population structure, the increased likelihood of cooperative partners being kin is balanced by increased kin competition, such that neither cooperation (helping) nor conflict (harming) is favoured. This model provides a baseline context in which other intra- and inter-group processes act, tipping the balance toward or away from conflict. We discuss future directions for research into the ecological factors shaping the evolution of inter-group interactions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Intergroup conflict across taxa’.

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Section: Inter-group Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%