Preprints

Filtering by Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

An introduction to generative network models and how they may be used to study animal sociality

Josefine Bohr Brask, Matthew Silk, Michael N. Weiss

Published: 2024-09-18
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social networks constitute an important approach in the study of animal social behaviour. So far, focus has been on statistical analysis of animal social network structures. However, social networks can also be studied by generative network models - procedures that create simulated network structures. These models play a key role in wider network science, but despite occasional use, have not yet [...]

Gene-culture coevolution: A broader evolutionary perspective

Sven Michael Kasser, Laura Fortunato, Kevin N. Lala

Published: 2024-09-05
Subjects: Anthropology, Biological and Physical Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Gene-culture coevolution (GCC) stands out among approaches to human evolution for its ambitious synthesis of biological and social sciences. Combining insights from cultural evolution and human genetics, it has been invoked to explain the evolution of many "species-defining" human traits, from language to large-scale cooperation. However, despite its broad conceptual appeal, empirical evidence [...]

Untangling the impact of live baitfish restrictions on recreational fishing participation in the United States

Victoria DeRooy, Amanda Hansen

Published: 2024-08-29
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences

In recent decades, many jurisdictions have established regulations governing the use of live baitfish in recreational fishing. These regulations are usually motivated by environmental concerns, such as the role that live baitfish play in the spread of invasive species and aquatic diseases. One question that might be posed by policymakers is whether limiting the use of live baitfish could impact [...]

Age, sex, and temperature shape within- and among-individual space use in black-capped chickadees

Megan Grace LaRocque, Jan Wijmenga, Kimberley Jean Mathot

Published: 2024-07-27
Subjects: Animal Studies, Behavior and Ethology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Historically, spatial ecology studies have focused on average movement patterns within animal groups; however, recent studies highlight the value of considering movement decisions both within- and among-individuals. Using a marked population of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), we used the number of unique feeders an individual visits within our study area as a proxy for space use [...]

Variation in the diversity of Sotalia (Cetacea:Delphinidae) dolphin whistle repertoires at a continental scale

Gabriel Melo-Santos, Sam Froman Walmsley, Volker B. Deecke, et al.

Published: 2024-07-08
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences

1. While cetaceans are known to produce large and complex acoustic repertoires, the challenges of exhaustively sampling sounds at sea and counting relevant signals has precluded an understanding of their true repertoire diversity. 2. Here we quantify and compare the whistle repertoires of 16 populations in the genus Sotalia, belonging to two sister species, the Guiana dolphin (Sotalia [...]

Linguistic evolution in time and space: addressing the methodological challenges

Chundra Cathcart, Balthasar Bickel

Published: 2024-07-04
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences

One of the most specific features of the human language faculty is its intrinsic spatio-temporal dynamic, as reflected in languages' characteristic mode of extra-genomic evolution. Understanding what has emerged in the hominin lineage therefore requires capturing this dynamic and the diversity of languages and structures that it generates. In this chapter, we review the state of the art in [...]

Supporting study registration to reduce research waste

Marija Purgar, Paul Glasziou, Tin Klanjscek, et al.

Published: 2024-06-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Research suffers from many inefficiencies. These lead to much research being avoidably wasted, with no or limited value to the end user (e.g. an estimated 82-89% of ecological research, and 85% of medical research). Here, we argue that the quality and impact of ecological research could be drastically improved by registration: pre-registration, and registered reports. However, without a [...]

IPDToolkit: An R package for simulation and Bayesian analysis of iterated prisoner’s dilemma game-play under third-party arbitration

Cody Ross, Thomas Fikes, Hillary Lenfesty, et al.

Published: 2024-06-03
Subjects: Anthropology, Political Science, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Recently, researchers have begun studying the role that third-party arbitration may play in the evolution of cooperation. Using the iterated prisoner’s dilemma (IPD), they show that arbitration can mitigate the negative effects of perception errors on the stability of cooperative strategies. Open questions, both theoretical and empirical, however, remain. To promote research on the role of [...]

Hunter-Gatherer Sociality and the Origins of Human Normative Thinking

Andrea Bamberg Migliano, Lucio Vinicius

Published: 2024-06-03
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences

Reconstructing the origin and evolution of culturally transmitted norms and institutions in the hominin lineage since our split from a common ancestry with African apes is a daunting task. By investigating the social structures of extant simple hunter-gatherers, as well as the evidence of extensive social networks and long-distance trade in early modern humans, we believe that regulation of [...]

Light Pollution at Sea: Implications and Potential Hazards of Human Activity for Offshore Bird and Bat Movements in the Greater North Sea

Cormac Walsh, Ommo Hüppop, Thiemo Karwinkel, et al.

Published: 2024-05-24
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Nature and Society Relations, Ornithology, Other Animal Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management, Zoology

Human activity in the North Sea is intensifying, as emerging uses, such as offshore wind farms (OWFs) and liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals, are added to fishing, freight shipping and fossil fuel production as traditional forms of resource exploitation. The volume and scale of these additional installations are projected to increase substantially in the coming decades, which amplifies the need [...]

Factors Influencing Support for Bat Management and Conservation in the Wildland-Urban Interface

Michael Petriello, Catrin Edgeley, Carol Chambers, et al.

Published: 2024-05-13
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about bats often underlie social support for bat management and intentions to conserve bats. Effective bat conservation and management hinges on understanding these drivers across contexts. Lands classified as wildland-urban interface (WUI) are rapidly expanding in the USA, increasing the likelihood of human-bat interactions from management practices and [...]

The Value and Urgency of Transportation Forestry

Matthew Browning, Kathleen Wolf, Pamela Murray-Tuite, et al.

Published: 2024-05-06
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences

The community and ecological benefits of trees and forests along roadways and other transportation infrastructure are important. Historically, the dialogue surrounding trees in transportation systems has focused on safety and crash reduction. We propose the sub-field of “Transportation Forestry” to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of trees and supporting green [...]

Historic residential segregation impacts biodiversity data availability disparately across the tree of life

Dexter H Locke, Melissa Chapman, Diego Ellis-Soto

Published: 2024-04-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Race and Ethnicity, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Urban Studies and Planning

Urbanization alters species ranges and nature’s contributions to people, motivating urban conservation. Residential segregation policies have left an indelible impact on urban environments, greenspaces, and wildlife communities, creating socioeconomic heterogeneity and altering biota. However, the extent to which data sufficiently capture urban biodiversity patterns remains unclear, especially [...]

Leveraging AI to improve evidence synthesis in conservation

Oded Berger-Tal, Bob B M Wong, Carrie Ann Adams, et al.

Published: 2024-04-20
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Systematic evidence syntheses (systematic reviews and maps) summarize knowledge and are used to support decisions and policies in a variety of applied fields, from medicine and public health to biodiversity conservation. However, conducting these exercises in conservation is often expensive and slow, which can impede their use and hamper progress in addressing the biodiversity crisis. With the [...]

Children adjust behavior in novel social environments to reflect local cooperative norms inferred from brief exposure

Kari Britt Schroeder, Peter R Blake, Laura Jean Nelson Darling

Published: 2024-03-29
Subjects: Anthropology, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Stark intergroup variation in prosocial behavior, as elicited with economic experiments, is evident even though humans are highly mobile. Conformity to local norms has been posited to play an integral role in the maintenance of this variation. Experiments suggest that adults indeed rapidly infer pro- and antisocial norms in a new or changed social environment and adjust their behavior to reflect [...]

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