Organized to learn: the influence of social structure on social learning opportunities in a group

Bas van Boekholt; Erica van de Waal; Elisabeth H M Sterck

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102117

Organized to learn: the influence of social structure on social learning opportunities in a group

iScience. 2021 Feb 3;24(2):102117. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102117. eCollection 2021 Feb 19.

Authors

Bas van Boekholt^{1

2}, Erica van de Waal³, Elisabeth H M Sterck^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Animal Ecology, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, 3584CH The Netherlands.
² Department of Comparative Biocognition, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49074, Germany.
³ Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.
⁴ Animal Science Department, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, 2288GJ, the Netherlands.

Abstract

Social learning, which is a mechanism that allows an individual to acquire skills from other individuals, occurs in a social context. Therefore, factors that influence social context, like social structure, will impact social learning opportunities. This review explores how features of social structure affect social learning opportunities in primates, either through their relationship with social tolerance or through the number of social learning models. Features that are investigated in this review and that we hypothesize affect social learning opportunities are parental investment, dominance hierarchy, nepotism, social bonds, dispersal, group size, fission-fusion dynamics, and sex ratio. For most of these features we find evidence, but support varies. Of all primate species, only humans show all the requirements of an optimal social structure to promote social learning. Future research into social learning and culture should not overlook the social context in which it takes place.

Keywords: Cognitive Neuroscience; Natural Sciences; Sociology.

Publication types

Review