Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Research questions based on Ratnieks et al. 2006 (Clara B. Jones)

Research questions for group-living vertebrates based on Ratnieks et al. 2006*, **

Introduction

Inclusive fitness theory explanations for both cooperation and conflict

What do we mean by conflict resolution?
1. "Potential conflict is any difference in the reproductive optima of individuals or groups within a society."
2. Individuals have three options...to be workers, reproductives, or dependents (e.g., "social parasites") or some combination of these serially or concurrently. Categories can be analyzed by class or rank, by sex, by age, by race or ethnicity, etc.
3. For vertebrates, including, humans, how do we estimate "fitness optima?"

Kinship, coercion, and constraint
"...low relatedness makes wasteful conflicts more likely because the cost of conflict falls upon more distant kin."

Sex allocation
...differential investment in males and/or females & differential costs/benefits...

Conflict-resolution
1. "Coercion and constraint may help to resolve conflict if one party has complete power over sex allocation." ...etc., e.g., over access to limiting resources...
2. "Mixed power seems likely in many but not all situations." ...e.g., "division of task"..."division of labor"...n.b. DoL more efficient than DoT; also note, male & female interests may not coincide since males are expected to be time-minimizers, females, energy-maximizers...
3. Under some conditions, is it more beneficial for an individual to assume the costs of conflict rather than to resolve conflict? ...i.e., When are costs of conflict [over reproduction &/or limiting resources (convertible to offspring] tolerated or preferred relative to benefits of conflict-resolution?
4. Importance of information, especially, competition for information [see EO Wilson 1971 on "communication" in societies]...Humans: language, who shares information with whom, etc...
5. Investigate "policing"*** as a form of conflict-resolution [mitigation of selfishness], mitigation of conflict [e.g., force, coercion, constraint, persuasion, etc. (see French & Raven's "bases of power")]...
6. What factors lower incentives for individual selfishness [& subsequent "tragedy of the commons"]
7. High "r" lowers the proportion of reproductives in a population...
See "reproductive skew" literature, e.g., R Hager & CB Jones 2009 CUP...

Conflicts among totipotent individuals
1. "Totipotency greatly increases the potential for conflict...."
2. If optimal family and/or group size can be estimated, excess individuals are likely to increase potential for conflict...

Discussion & Conclusions
1. Class conflicts relatively easy to resolve [because dominants "police" subordinates?]...
2. Conflict easily resolved when one party "powerless"...
3. Should the incorporation of steriles or other non-reproductives in groups reduce conflict?...relative to what [e.g., "r"]...
4. How do humans escape control in groups? [see French & Raven's "bases of power"]
5. What role does genetics play in conflict-resolution [e.g., genetic conflict]...

*Ratnieks FIW, Foster KR, Wenseleers T (2006) Conflict resolution in insect societies. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 51: 581-608.****
**Sentences in quotation marks are quotations from paper; other statements, comments, or questions are my interpolations relative to group-living vertebrates, including, humans.
***New paper: "'Enforcement' is central to evolution of cooperation"...i.e., &, also, to evolution of repression of selfishness... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0907-1

****Topics/questions based on titles of literature cited:
--evolution of male and female traits
--causes & consequences of informational constraint
--conflict over class/SES determination
--status-allocation to offspring
--Does it "pay' kin to favor relatives who are "losers" or inferior reproductives and/or competitors?
--n.b. Charnov EL (1978) Evolution of eusocial behavior: offspring choice or parental parasitism? JTB 75: 451-465.
--n.b. Crespi BJ, Ragsdale JE (2000) A skew model for the evolution of sociality via manipulation: why it is better to be feared than loved. Proc R. Soc. London B Biol. Sci. 267: 821-828.
--facultative policing
--conflict over paternity [n.b. causes & consequences of multiple-mating by females]
--n.b. Keller L (1997) Indiscriminate altruism: unduly nice parents and siblings. TREE 12: 99-103.
--genes regulating complex social behavior
--ancestral states of complex sociality
--sex-ratio determination in groups & populations [e.g., conflict over sex-ratio determination]
--causes & consequences of sexual deception [e.g., in some mammal species, males are indistinguishable from adult females for some time before expressing secondary sexual characteristics (see, e.g., mantled howler monkeys, Alouatta palliata)]
--selfish tactics & strategies that promote sociality [e.g., "social cohesion"]
--implications: "heirs & spares"
--mechanisms of conflict-management & conflict-resolution in eusocial taxa
--n.b. Ratnieks FLW, Wenseleers T (2005) Policing in insect societies. Science 307: 54-56.
--alternative reproductive strategies and conflict-resolution/conflict-management
--n.b. Sachs JL, Mueller UG, Wilcox TP, Bull JJ (2004) The evolution of cooperation. Q. Rev. Biol. 79: 135-160.
--policing x age, sex, class/SES, race, etc.
--Is multiple-mating by females rare in vertebrates?
--causes & effects of totipotency; ubiquitous in vertebrates?
--genetic basis of sterility
--mechanisms of kin discrimination
--What traits differentiate members of classes [within & between]?
--relevance of behavioral flexibility & phenotypic plasticity to conflict-management & conflict-resolution [also, flexibility of group structures]