Comparative psychological research on the sexual selection hypothesis for the evolution of altruism

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25330175
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: Izawa Ei-Ichi 慶應義塾大学, 文学部, 准教授 (10433731)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 利他性 / カラス / 一夫一妻 / 互恵性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigated the hypothesis that the function of altruistic behaviour in mate choice of long-term monogamous species. Crows, life-long monogamy, are an ideal model to test this hypothesis. This study employed the observation and the experiment methods for two captive groups of crows. We first analyzed the inter-individual social interactions and found that affiliative interactions with alrtuisitc allopreening increased after the dominance hierarchy stabilized via aggressive interactions in the groups. Second, we found that the sex-different correlations between dominance ranks and basal stress level estimated by fecal corticosterone metabolites. Third, we found that the presence of females slightly enhance male-male allopreening, suggesting allopreening may play a role of mate choice signal for females. Finally, we found that males allofed higher quality food and allopreened more to the partner females, suggesting altruistic efforts may bias to males.

Free Research Field

比較認知科学