Friendship, reciprocation, and interchange in an individual-based model
Authored by Charlotte Hemelrijk, Ivan Puga-Gonzalez, Anne Hoscheid
Date Published: 2015
DOI: 10.1007/s00265-014-1850-4
Sponsors:
National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Reciprocation and interchange of grooming and support may emerge as a
consequence of the socio-spatial structure of the group through which
individuals interact with certain partners more frequently than with
others. This is shown in a computational model of grouping, fighting, and grooming, called Groofiworld. In this case, no specific mechanism of
exchange is needed, such as described in calculated reciprocity or
emotional bookkeeping. One of the drawbacks of this model, GroofiWorld, however, is that it lacks social bonding, a factor that may play an
important role in real societies of primates. To investigate the effect
of social bonding on exchange relations, in the present study, we add
`social bonding' to the model `GrooFiWorld.' In the new model, called
`FriendsWorld,' social bonds or `friends' are defined as the top 25 \%
grooming partners and individuals are given a tendency to follow their
friends. Note that they do not intend to reciprocate or interchange
social services with friends. Results show that this mechanism of
`follow-your-friends,' not only increases social interactions among top
grooming partners, but also strengthens the patterns of reciprocation
and interchange. Our findings suggest that, in real primates, reciprocation and interchange may emerge as a side-effect of the
social-spatial structure of the group and subsequently be strengthened
by social bonding as represented in FriendsWorld. We give predictions
that distinguish between the mechanism of `follow-your-friends' and
emotional bookkeeping.
Tags
Partner choice
Female baboons
Japanese macaques
Social bonds
Male barbary macaques
Capuchin
monkeys
Calculated reciprocity
Coalition-formation
Macaca-sylvanus
Time frame