Conflict

Question 1

in only which groups is there no intra group conflict?

Answer 1

clones

Question 2

what 4 things cause common disagreements within groups?

Answer 2

access to food
access to mates
direction of travel
allocation of tasks

Question 3

what can escalation of conflict lead to?

Answer 3

v costly
injury
leaving grouop
future cooperation
time and energy
winners of conflicts still have costs

Question 4

in what ways is conflict managed?

Answer 4

1. prevent conflict escalating via niche partitioning

2. repair damaged relationships

Question 5

eg of niche partitioning to reduce conflict

Answer 5

Green woodhoopoes have sexual dimorphism in bill length to partition food resources and reduce comp. Adult males
5% bigger body size, but 36% longer beak, distinct after 8 months. foragers use diff techniques depending on bill morphology. also dimorphic in vocalisations.

generally, niche partitioning can occur btw sexes, ages, hierarchy, and broadens the niche of a species as a whole.

Question 6

how do individuals challenge those in the dominance hierarchy?

Answer 6

challenge only between those closely ranked.
saves time and energy, minimises risk.
must give honest signals of rank.

Question 7

how is punishment used by Dinosaur ants to reduce intragroup conflict?

Answer 7

Dinoponera quadriceps
Beta female challenging alpha female is marked with a secretion
by alpha, leading to physical immobilisation of beta female by low ranking workers. beta female stops challenging. here the threat of punishment minimises conflict.

Question 8

how do greeting rituals minimise intra group conflict?

Answer 8

reduce antagonism and
increase tolerance.
By showing you arent intending to be aggressive, will increase tolerance by the other party.
Infants are used as a buffer against aggression, as dominant males wont harm an infant.

Question 9

why are Pied babblers good to study?

Answer 9

obligate cooperative breeders, groups of 3-16.
can habituate to human presence allowing accurate observations, clear sound recordings, regular weight measures and data collection.

Question 10

what did Radford and Ridley 2008 find about Pied babblers vocalisations?

Answer 10

Calls = Chucks.
Foragers increase call rate when potential preds nearby, and likelihood of competition.
calling maintains spacing between foraging competitors.
used playback experiments.

Question 11

describe reproductive concession in Geladas

Answer 11

usually rep limited to dominants, but occasionally will allow subs to rep.
persuades sub males to stay and help defend territiory. instead of getting 100% RS, the dominant male will have 83%.

Question 12

what has systematic study of post conflict behaviour btw antagonists shown?

Answer 12

increased proximity and friendly behaviour - grooming, embracing, kisses.
increased affiliation in the aftermath of conflict. (studies by matched control and aftermath periods)
seen in dolphins, birds, goats, primates and hyenas.

Question 13

post conflict beh in fish

Answer 13

Cleaner wrasse cheat by biting client fish. cleaners provide tactile stimulation following bite so not to drive client away.

Question 14

what are the ultimate reasons for post conflict reconciliation?

Answer 14

reduces probability of further attacks and associated anxiety - indicated by scratching in macaques. anxiety in both victim and aggressor.

Question 15

what is the valuable relationship hypothesis?

Answer 15

Post-conflict reconciliation should be more common
following disturbance of a relationship where there is
a larger loss of benefits for both opponents

Question 16

what experimental evidence is there for the valuable relationship hypothesis?

Answer 16

Cords and Thurnheer 1993
increased reconciliation when stronger relationship established
macaques - monitored post conflict beh after exp induced conflict, before and after a cooperative food task which increased the strength of their relationship. Greater reconciliation after.

Question 17

post conflict beh in corvids

Answer 17

includes bystanders, triadic affiliation

consolation,reduces likelihood of redirected aggression, substitute for a friend to generate reconciliation.

Question 18

inter group conflict in wood ants

Answer 18

colonies fight each other over territory
Batchelor and Briffa 2011
in lab, can identify individuals. saw individuals in smaller groups fight harder, as if to make up for the lack of fighters.

Question 19

inter group conflict in chimpanzees. observations by Wilson 2002

Answer 19

individuals approach rivals faster when more likely to win.
ritual - groups meet,signal and may be violent.
vocal communication between groups ceases when a male crosses territory border. aim to isolate a particular rival male to kill him = silent raid.
only see a physical fight is conflict cannot be resolved at a lower cost outcome.

Question 20

inter group conflict in Lions.

Answer 20

Packer et al 1990
Larger groups win more often. Although also due to other factors, not always just about size. eg location of fight - if in core of a groups territory, more likely to win.

Question 21

what is the consequence of inter group conflict?

Answer 21

drive for intra group cooperation and affiliation.

May occur in immediate aftermath or over the next few days or a onger time scale.

Question 22

immediate effects

Answer 22

1. human behaviour - in economic computer games. promotes cooperation and enhances punishment. however these games dont have an aftermath so subtly different.
2. Cichlids - groups of 3-18 coop breeders, defend breeding territory. paired tanks of breeding groups. paired tanks can be visible to each other or separated with a barrier. simulated intrusions with a rival fish in a jar. once removed, observed intruded groups beh in aftermath.
   saw increased intra-group affiliation. also, neighbour intruders induced a greater response compared to unfamiliar intruders.
3. Tufted Capuchin - experimentally blocked visual contact btw neighbouring groups. found when rivals are visible, more intra group aggression especially by dominant individuals. maybe due to anxiety or threat to those that don’t defend.

Question 23

what immediate changes can occur to groups after inter group conflict?

Answer 23

Exclusion from particular areas

increased stress levels

Question 24

example of long lasting beh consequences of inter group conflict

Answer 24

Green Woodhoopoes
groups of 3-12 coop breeding individuals. regular inter g conflicts involve raucous vocal choruses.
bimodial distribution of interactions - short interactions are just to get information.
longer 15-45 min have an obvious winner and loser.
subs do more than doms in choruses. in aftermath, increased affiliation by doms preening subs. more so if lose.

long term effects: limiting resource for groups is tree cavities, used for breeding and roosting at night. each territory has ~7 treeholes. zone of conflict between territories, about 100m from border.
when there is extended conflict in the morning, likely in the evening to roost in the zone of conflict. especially if lost morning conflict. Also less likely for gr members to split up to roost, more likely to allopreen.

Question 25

characteristics of a group with Low WGC, low BGC

Answer 25

plenty of resources
no need for kin based subgroups
dispersal expected as not reliant on an aliance
Egalitarian society

Question 26

characteristics of a group with Low WGC, high BGC

Answer 26

plentiful resources so no alliances forming.
must collectively fight outsiders to help kin
Egalitarian and philopatric

Question 27

characteristics of a group with low BGC, high WGC

Answer 27

dominance hierarchies develop.
strong alliances between kin.
dispersal makes you isolated in access to resources
Nepotistic, despotic, philopatric

Question 28

characteristics of a group with high BGC, high WGC

Answer 28

dominance heirarchies
subs dont help in inter group conflict.
BGC promotes level of tolerance of doms and subs.
nepotistic, philopatric.

Question 29

what is parochial altruism

Answer 29

‘In-group love’ and ‘out-group hate’
closely linked in human evolution.
co-evolution of high levels of cooperation and altruism, and extreme scales of inter group violence.

Question 30

theoretical modellingand archeological data shows:

Answer 30

Lethal group conflict may have been frequent enough to support proliferation of costly forms of altruism
… but did it?!