2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
The evolution of group-mindedness: Comparative perspectives with humans' evolutionarily and socially closest species
| Project/Area Number |
21J21123
|
|---|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
BROOKS JAMES 京都大学, 理学研究科, 特別研究員(DC1)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-28 – 2024-03-31
|
| Keywords | oxytocin / bonobo / chimpanzee / group-mindedness / collective behaviour / cooperation / evolution / intergroup competition |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In this fiscal year I published 3 scientific articles, presented my research at 2 large international conferences, and collected data on several new projects. I was able to analyze my free-ranging horse GPS data, finding significant effects of oxytocin on group organization (decreased group differentiation and more diffuse groups), as well as finishing collecting data from 8 bonobo groups at 5 sites in an international collaboration on the effect of outgroup vocalizations on ingroup social behaviour (finding bonobos do tend to unite with their ingroup in the face of perceived outgroup threat, but to a lesser degree than chimpanzees in the previous study). I also collected data on eye contact as mediated through social closeness using eye-tracking, accumulated observational data from several groups, and conducted a new horse observational study using drones to observe co-feeding (examining how oxytocin affects actual social behaviour beyond spatial organization). I also began to assemble the studies into a doctoral thesis to graduate this fiscal year, where the studies converge to support a role of intergroup threat on certain forms of group-mindedness as supported by the oxytocin system.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
So far the projects are going smoothly as hoped, despite challenges due to the pandemic. We successfully collected data on many open projects, and continue to analyze and publish previously collected data. I was finally able to attend international conferences and present my work to colleagues in my field and received great advice and support, and have incorporated this into my research. Plans are aligned to continue this research smoothly into this final year, where a group cooperation task in development for years is ready for data collection, data is available for analysis and publication taken last year, and new eye-tracking experiments are nearly ready to operate. I will then continue to present my research abroad and participate in international conferences and symposiums.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In this year, I am will complete data collection for the first of the group cooperation task papers, and will aim to publish the existing data on bonobos' response to outgroup threat, and about oxytocin's effect on horse herd behaviour. I will also analyze the new horse and ape eye-tracking data, complete my doctoral course studies, and visit several labs in Europe to present the research results more widely, and build collaborations between European institutes and Japanese labs. I will then participate in the Diverse Intelligence Summer Institute, before returning to Japan to continue data collection in fall with chimpanzees and bonobos. In particular, I will introduce variations to the group cooperation task and will run a new eye-tracking study. Finally, I am starting collaborations to study evolutionary game theory to aim towards deepening the ties between theoretical and empirical approaches to the evolution of group cooperation and competition.
|
