Prosociality in a despotic society

Prosociality is the intent to improve others’ well-being. Existing hypotheses postulate that enhanced social tolerance and inter-individual dependence may facilitate prosocial preferences, which may favor the evolution of altruism. While most studies are restricted to ‘tolerant’ (cooperatively breeding and self-domesticated) species, despotic societies provide an alternative opportunity to investigate prosociality due to nepotism and ample inter-individual dependencies. Japanese macaques live in hierarchical matrilineal societies, with strong kin bonds. Besides, tolerance among non-kin may persist through reciprocity. Using a group service food-provision paradigm, we found prosocial preferences in a semi free-ranging group of Japanese macaques. The extent of provisioning was at levels comparable to tolerant species. Dyadic tolerance predicted the likelihood and magnitude of provisioning, while kinship predicted the magnitude. We emphasize the role of a complex socio-ecology fostering in..., (a) Study site and subjects: The study was conducted with a semi-free-ranging group (~170 individuals) of Japanese macaques at Affenberg Landskron in Austria from February to May 2022. The macaques live in natural socio-environmental conditions with limited human intervention, except for feeding and emergency medical purposes (such as veterinary care). However, the group is habituated to human presence as visitors can enter the enclosure within the scope of guided tours offered by the park from April to September. Our study gained high ecological validity due to the population's living conditions and naturalistic group setting.
A total of 25 self-trained individuals voluntarily participated in the study while remaining in their social group. Direct interaction between the subjects and the experimenter was avoided by placing the apparatuses needed for our experiments in small research huts (with wire mesh separations), which the macaques could operate from outside. Affenberg Landskron pr..., Microsoft Excel 365
R-version 4.2.2