Social induction and the developmental trajectory of participation in intergroup conflict by vervet monkeys

Clarke, M, Bonnell, T, Blersch, R, Nord, C, Vilette, C, Young, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8919-2093, Henzi, P and Barrett, L, 2025. Social induction and the developmental trajectory of participation in intergroup conflict by vervet monkeys. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 7: e9. ISSN 2513-843X

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Abstract

We assess the proposition that intergroup conflict (IGC) in non-human primates offers a useful comparison for studies of human IGC and its links to parochial altruism and prosociality. That is, for non-linguistic animals, social network integration and maternal influence promote juvenile engagement in IGC and can serve as the initial grounding for sociocultural processes that drive human cooperation. Using longitudinal data from three cohorts of non-adult vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), we show that non-adults are sensitive to personal (age) and situational risk (participant numbers). The frequency and intensity of participation, although modulated by rank and temperament, both mirrors maternal participation and reflects non-adult centrality in the grooming network. The possibility of social induction is corroborated by the distribution of grooming during IGC, with non-adults being more likely to be groomed if they were female, higher-ranking and participants themselves. Mothers were more likely to groom younger offspring participants of either sex, whereas other adults targeted higher-ranking female participants. Although we caution against a facile alignment of these outcomes to human culturally mediated induction, there is merit in considering how the embodied act of participation and the resultant social give-and-take might serve as the basis for a unified comparative investigation of prosociality.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Evolutionary Human Sciences
Creators:	Clarke, M., Bonnell, T., Blersch, R., Nord, C., Vilette, C., Young, C., Henzi, P. and Barrett, L.
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date:	2025
Volume:	7
ISSN:	2513-843X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1017/ehs.2025.7 DOI 2407466 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	25 Mar 2025 10:02
Last Modified:	25 Mar 2025 10:02
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53295

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