Vervet Monkeys Follow Different Social 'Norms' and Respond to 'Peer Pressure,' New Long-Term Study Shows
Published:25 Jan.2024 Source:Cell Press
People living in different communities follow different social customs or norms. In some places, for instance, it might be standard practice to greet each person you see on the street, while in others that simply isn't done. In some cases, such differences may even vary from one neighborhood to the next. To explore further in the new study, the researchers analyzed more than 84,000 social interactions between almost 250 vervet monkey individuals collected over nine years in three neighboring groups.
The analyses revealed an unexpected difference: in one of the groups, dubbed Ankhase (AK), the monkeys were more likely than in the other two groups to trade off when grooming each other. Such differences in social traditions set up differences in "social atmosphere" that could be passed on from one generation to the next through social learning. Intriguingly, they also found that dispersing males quickly adapted their social style to that of their new group, suggesting that they may experience a phenomenon akin to social conformity driven by peer pressure.
The findings show that groups not only have different social traditions but that those traditions also can be stable over time in ways that are likely mediated socially. The researchers suggest that these differences are passed on through social learning, although they can't rule out that there may be other differences in the environment at work, too. Now that researchers know about the existence of these social traditions, they'd like to learn more about how monkeys are introduced and passed on. Researchers are especially curious to explore the role of key individuals or leaders in pressuring newcomers to follow along.