Indirectly connected: simple social differences can explain the causes and apparent consequences of complex social network positions.

ABSTRACT: Animal societies are often structurally complex. How individuals are positioned within the wider social network (i.e. their indirect social connections) has been shown to be repeatable, heritable and related to key life-history variables. Yet, there remains a general lack of understanding surrounding how complex network positions arise, whether they indicate active multifaceted social decisions by individuals, and how natural selection could act on this variation. We use simulations to assess how variation in simple social association rules between individuals can determine their positions within emerging social networks. Our results show that metrics of individuals' indirect connections can be more strongly related to underlying simple social differences than metrics of their dyadic conne

SUBMITTER: Firth JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5719175 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature