Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates

Abstract

Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from 'despotic' to 'tolerant'). At the individual-level, we found that dominant individuals who were more tolerant vocalized at a higher rate than their despotic counterparts. This indicates that tolerance within a relationship may place pressure on the dominant partner to communicate more during social interactions. At the species-level, however, despotic species exhibited a larger repertoire of hierarchy-related vocalizations than their tolerant counterparts. Findings suggest primate signals are used and evolve in tandem with the nature of interactions that characterize individuals' social relationships.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Kavanagh, Eithne Street, Sally E. Angwela, Felix O. Bergman, Thore J. Blaszczyk, Maryjka B. Bolt, Laura M. Briseño-Jaramillo, Margarita Brown, Michelle Chen-Kraus, Chloe Clay, Zanna Coye, Camille Thompson, Melissa Emery Estrada, Alejandro Fichtel, Claudia Fruth, Barbara Gamba, Marco Giacoma, Cristina Graham, Kirsty E. (kg960@york.ac.uk) Green, Samantha Grueter, Cyril C. Gupta, Shreejata Gustison, Morgan L. Hagberg, Lindsey Hedwig, Daniela Jack, Katharine M. Kappeler, Peter M. King-Bailey, Gillian Kuběnová, Barbora Lemasson, Alban Inglis, David Macgregor Machanda, Zarin Macintosh, Andrew Majolo, Bonaventura Marshall, Sophie Mercier, Stephanie Micheletta, Jérôme Muller, Martin Notman, Hugh Ouattara, Karim Ostner, Julia Pavelka, Mary S.M. Peckre, Louise R. Petersdorf, Megan Quintero, Fredy Ramos-Fernández, Gabriel Robbins, Martha M. Salmi, Roberta Schamberg, Isaac Schoof, Valérie A.M. Schülke, Oliver Semple, Stuart Silk, Joan B. Sosa-Lopéz, J. Roberto Torti, Valeria Valente, Daria Ventura, Raffaella Van De Waal, Erica Weyher, Anna H. Wilke, Claudia (cw562@york.ac.uk) Wrangham, Richard Young, Christopher Zanoli, Anna Zuberbühler, Klaus Lameira, Adriano R. Slocombe, Katie https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7310-1887
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors.
Keywords:	communication,dominance style,social behaviour,sociality,vocal
Dates:	Published (online): 28 July 2021 Accepted: 8 July 2021
Institution:	The University of York
Academic Units:	The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York)
Depositing User:	Pure (York)
Date Deposited:	07 Sep 2021 10:00
Last Modified:	21 Jan 2025 17:56
Published Version:	https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.210873
Status:	Published online
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1098/rsos.210873
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:177923

Download

Published Version

Filename: rsos.210873.pdf

Description: rsos.210873

Licence: CC-BY 2.5

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)

Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates

Abstract

Metadata

Download

Published Version

Export

Statistics