generous leaders and selfish underdogs pro-sociality in despotic macaques慷慨的领导人和自私的弱者在专制社会道德猕猴.pdfVIP

Generous Leaders and Selfish Underdogs: Pro-Sociality in Despotic Macaques 1 1 1 1,2 Jorg J. M. Massen , Lisette M. van den Berg , Berry M. Spruijt , Elisabeth H. M. Sterck * 1 Behavioural Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2 Ethology Research, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands Abstract Actively granting food to a companion is called pro-social behavior and is considered to be part of altruism. Recent findings show that some non-human primates behave pro-socially. However, pro-social behavior is not expected in despotic species, since the steep dominance hierarchy will hamper pro-sociality. We show that some despotic long-tailed macaques do grant others access to food. Moreover, their dominance hierarchy determines pro-social behavior in an unexpected way: high- ranking individuals grant, while low-ranking individuals withhold their partner access to food. Surprisingly, pro-social behavior is not used by subordinates to obtain benefits from dominants, but by dominants to emphasize their dominance position. Hence, Machiavellian macaques rule not through ‘‘fear above love’’, but through ‘‘be feared when needed and loved when possible’’. Citation: Massen JJM, van den Berg LM, Spruijt BM, Sterck EHM (2010) Generous Leaders and Selfish Underdogs: Pro-Sociality in Despotic Macaques. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9734. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009734 Editor: Sarah Frances Brosnan, Georgia State University, United States of America Received December 10, 2009; Accepted February 24, 2010; Published March 17, 2010 Copyright: 2010 Massen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attr