Coalitions and Alliances

Question 1

what are social relationships?

comparative

Answer 1

the sum of social interactions over a period of time

can be either negative or positive

Question 2

types of social relationships

comparative

Answer 2

kinship
friendship
dominance

Question 3

what is altruism ?

Answer 3

a behaviour that reduces the actors fitness while increasing another’s

Question 4

what is kin selection?

Answer 4

evolutionary strategy that favours the reproductive success of an organisms relative, even at the cost of the organisms own survival and reproduction

the bring shared genetic info into the next generation

Question 5

what are eusocial species?

Answer 5

cooperative brood care, with multiple generations f adults. the division of labour is split into reproductive (queens) and non-reproductive castes

Question 6

species with parental care…

Answer 6

mainly the mother/mated pair take care of the offspring (no division of reproductive labor)

Question 7

species without parental care …

Answer 7

invest in eggs and sperm

Question 8

what is reciprocal altruism?

Answer 8

evolutionary strategy that favours the reproductive success of another organism by receiving payback for services offered before

Question 9

what is direct altruism

Answer 9

temporarily reducing an individuals fitness while increasing another’s with the expectation that the latter will return the favour

A–>B, B–>A

Question 10

what is an indirect altruism

Answer 10

an act that temporarily reduces an individuals fitness whilst increasing another’s. with the expectation that a witness might return the favour

A–>B, C–>A

Question 11

what is generalised altruism

Answer 11

recipients of altruistic acts are more likely to be altruistic in turn

–>A, A–>

Question 12

how is altruistic payback computed ?

Answer 12

either by:

calculated reciprocity: based on a tally of exchanges and requires a high cognitive burden

attitudinal reciprocity: based on single exchanges and requires a low cognitive burden .. only considers the last exchange

Question 13

what is and why do people separate interventions

Answer 13

it is a behaviour aimed at breaking apart the ongoing interaction of two or more individuals. Used in agonistic contexts

it is thought to function to prevent coalition formation

males intervine to keep females in the group so that they can mate with them

Question 14

why do hamadryas baboons have high male intervention rates

Answer 14

females immigrant between groups and have low female kinship and therefore need to intervene to keep their females

Question 15

why do gelada baboons have low male intervention?

Answer 15

females don’t immigrant and are natal and therefore have high female kinship

Question 16

why did sociality evolve? benefits

Answer 16

food competition (inter-group)

predator defense

access to reproduction

protection against infanticide

Question 17

what is the social brain hypothesis

Answer 17

that as group size increases so does the size of the neocortex

thought this is because they have to keep track of all the social relationships

species with coalitions have larger neocortices

Question 18

What is machiavellian intelligence

Answer 18

its outcompeting species and using tactical deception

results showed a positive relationship between these and neocortex volume

Question 19

hierarchical organisation of behaviour

Answer 19

1) social relationship

2) social structure

Question 20

what is social structure

Answer 20

the network of existing relationships in a social group and can involve ecology, survival and reproduction