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A study on vervet monkeys has identified stable social traditions within different groups, particularly in grooming behaviors, indicating that these animals pass on social customs through generations. Males adapt their social behaviors to conform to the norms of new groups, showcasing a form of social conformity among non-human primates. Credit: Charlotte Canteloup
“We report the existence of behavioral traditions of social customs in vervet monkeys that are stable across 9 years,” says Elena Kerjean of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France. The AK group was not only more social than the other two, but they also exchanged grooming more reciprocally. When a monkey groomed another monkey, that monkey would usually repay the favor. As a result, grooming was exchanged more fairly in AK compared to the other two groups.
“Males adapted their sociality to the group they integrated with, which we believe is a good example of social conformity,” Kerjean says. “This normative rule—act like others—probably helps them to get better integrated in a new group. This conformity effect had been previously shown through a novel food experiment, but this is the first time that we observed that with social behavior.”
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