Social groups with diverse personalities mitigate physiological stress in a songbird

Social groups often consist of diverse phenotypes, including personality types, and this diversity is known to affect the functioning of the group as a whole. Social selection theory proposes that group composition (i.e. social environment) also influences the performance of individual group members. However, the effect of group behavioural composition on group members remains largely unexplored, and it is still contentious whether individuals benefit more in a social environment with homogeneous or diverse behavioural composition. We experimentally formed groups of house sparrows Passer domesticus with high and low diversity of personality (exploratory behaviour), and found that their physiological state (body condition, physiological stress and oxidative damage) improved with increasing group-level diversity of personality. These findings demonstrate that group personality composition affects the condition of group members and individuals benefit from social heterosis (i.e. associatin...社会群体通常由包含人格类型在内的多样化表型（phenotypes）所构成，此类多样性已知会对群体整体的运作功能产生影响。社会选择理论（Social selection theory）提出，群体构成（即社会环境）同样会影响个体群体成员的表现。然而，群体行为构成对群体成员的影响在很大程度上仍未得到系统探索，且“个体在行为构成同质化抑或多样化的社会环境中获益更多”这一问题目前仍存在争议。我们通过实验构建了具有高、低人格（探索行为）多样性的家麻雀（Passer domesticus）群体，研究发现随着群体层面人格多样性的提升，个体的生理状态（身体状况、生理应激与氧化损伤）得到改善。上述研究结果表明，群体人格构成会影响群体成员的自身状况，且个体可从社会杂种优势（social heterosis）中获益（即关联……）