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A Test of the Cross‐Generational Transmission of Grooming Preferences in Macaques
Author(s) -
Schino Gabriele,
Aureli Filippo,
Ventura Raffaella,
Troisi Alfonso
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2003.00959.x
Subject(s) - macaque , generality , preference , ranking (information retrieval) , psychology , cultural transmission in animals , social psychology , test (biology) , biology , demography , developmental psychology , evolutionary biology , statistics , ecology , sociology , computer science , mathematics , neuroscience , psychotherapist , machine learning
In this study we compared the grooming networks of macaque mothers and adult daughters in order to test whether primate social preferences may be transmitted from one generation to the next. We studied four social groups belonging to three different species ( Macaca fascicularis, M. fuscata and M. sylvanus ). We found no evidence for the transmission of individual degrees of kin bias or of preference for high‐ranking individuals (transmission of ‘rules of choice’). Only in one of four social groups were idiosyncratic interindividual preferences of mothers significantly similar to those of their adult daughters. Overall, the results of this study question the generality of the intergenerational transmission of social preferences in macaques. It is suggested that species‐specific degrees of preferences for kin and for high‐ranking individuals should be selected for and strategically adjusted by individual females in relation to social circumstances.