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

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 struct...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: van Boekholt, Bas, van de Waal, Erica, Sterck, Elisabeth H.M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7890404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33659880
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102117
Descripción
Sumario: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.