Social competence: an evolutionary approach.
- Taborsky B Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Hinterkappelen, Switzerland. barbara.taborsky@iee.unbe.ch
- Oliveira RF
- 2012-10-09
Published in:
- Trends in ecology & evolution. - 2012
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Biological Evolution
Brain
Gene Expression Regulation
Genetic Fitness
Nerve Net
Social Behavior
English
'Social competence' refers to the ability of an individual to optimise its social behaviour depending on available social information. Although such ability will enhance social interactions and thus raise Darwinian fitness, its evolutionary and ecological significance has been largely ignored. Social competence is based on behavioural flexibility. We propose that the study of social competence requires an integrative approach that aims to understand how the brain translates social information into flexible behavioural responses, how flexibility might be constrained by the developmental history of an individual or by trade-offs with other (ecological) competences, and how social plasticity feeds back on fitness. Finally we propose a hypothesis of how social competence can become a driver of social evolution.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1016/j.tree.2012.09.003
- PMID 23040461
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/101814
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