Social tolerance and success-biased social learning underlies cultural transmission in a wild tool-using primate

Coelho, Camila; Garcia-Nisa, Ivan; Ottoni, Eduardo; Kendal, Rachel

Abstract

Significance
The influence of social tolerance in animal social learning has been scarcely investigated empirically. Social tolerance determines who is allowed in proximity to whom and granted access to resources such as food or social information. Therefore, tolerance toward others in proximity is necessary for the spread of social information, linking theories of cultural transmission and animal traditions (or culture). Here, we find evidence that naïve individuals attend to, and potentially learn from, successful conspecifics. Further, we find that social tolerance influences pathways of information transmission. Understanding the role of observation biases and social tolerance dynamics in the spread of novel foraging behavior in a tool-using primate may shed light on the evolutionary forces involved in primate cultural abilities.

Abstract
The last two decades have seen great advances in the study of social learning (learning from others), in part due to efforts to identify it in the wild as the basis of behavioral traditions. Theoretical frameworks suggest that both the dynamics of social tolerance and transmission biases (or social learning strategies) influence the pathways of information diffusion in social groups. Bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) inhabiting the semiarid seasonal caatinga biome of the Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP) form highly tolerant societies that possess the largest “tool-kit” described for monkeys, a feat likely facilitated by social learning. Here, we used social network analysis and an open diffusion experiment using an extractive foraging task to identify the occurrence of social learning and describe the pathways of social transmission of information in two wild primate populations. The dynamics of social tolerance outside of task introductions predicted opportunities for social learning, but it was tolerance during task introductions that predicted the actual pathways of social information diffusion. Our results also indicated that the capuchins mainly learned from others via direct observation and naïve individuals exhibited an observation bias toward successful males. This study supports the claims of cultural transmission in robust capuchins and empirically supports the role of social tolerance and social learning strategies in human and nonhuman primate cultural evolution.

Citation

Coelho, C., Garcia-Nisa, I., Ottoni, E., & Kendal, R. (2024). Social tolerance and success-biased social learning underlies cultural transmission in a wild tool-using primate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(48), Article e2322884121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2322884121

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 18, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Nov 18, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 26, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 2, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 18, 2024
• Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0027-8424
• Electronic ISSN: 1091-6490
• Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 121
• Issue: 48
• Article Number: e2322884121
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2322884121
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2943094
• Publisher URL: https://www.pnas.org/#