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Individual mental representation of dominance hierarchies in Tonkean macaque

Représentation mentale à l’échelle individuelle des hiérarchies de dominance chez le macaque de Tonkean
Sébastien Ballesta, Jamie Whitehouse, Romain Ligneul et Hélène Meunier

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1Most primate species live in social groups structured by a dominance hierarchy. Past studies suggest that non-human primates represent the social structure of their own group. However, these mental representations are typically considered at the group level and little is known regarding how individuals differ in their representation of these third-party social relations. In this study, semi-free ranging Tonkean macaques (Macaca tonkeana) performed, using autonomous testing devices (MALT), a cognitive task to describe individual representation of the dominance hierarchy of their own group. In the training phase, subjects were rewarded for selecting amongst a dyad of pictures representing a peer, the more dominant one. Test trials depicted dyads of individuals that were not involved in the training phase and both responses were rewarded. We analyzed 1.4 million trials in 21 subjects and found that subjects’ answers were overall consistent with the hierarchy measured using ethological observations. Moreover, we found that subject’s performances were affected by socio-demographic factors suggesting different social skills and knowledge. Using a continuous assessment of the dominance hierarchy of the group across time, we were able to test the best correspondence between monkeys’ answers to the task and the temporal variation in social structure of their own group. We found that some individuals’ (mostly young males) mental representation of the hierarchy matched the current state of the group, while others’ (mostly old females) matched the hierarchy of the group months or even years ago. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study quantifying individual variation of social knowledge, our findings support that social representation must be conceptualized as a subjective truth that must be deciphered at the individual level.

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Référence électronique

Sébastien Ballesta, Jamie Whitehouse, Romain Ligneul et Hélène Meunier, « Individual mental representation of dominance hierarchies in Tonkean macaque »Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris [En ligne], 37(S) | 2025, mis en ligne le 16 janvier 2025, consulté le 07 février 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/bmsap/14553 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/133np

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Auteurs

Sébastien Ballesta

Primate Center of the University of Strasbourg, LNCA (UMR 7364), Strasbourg, France ; ballesta[at]unistra.fr

Jamie Whitehouse

Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

Romain Ligneul

COPHY, Centre de Recherche en Neuroscience de Lyon, Inserm U 1028 / CNRS UMR 5292, Bron, France

Hélène Meunier

Primate Center of the University of Strasbourg, LNCA (UMR 7364), Strasbourg, France

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Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

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