RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 026120
DO 10.1101/026120
A1 Amiyaal Ilany
A1 Erol Akcay
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/03/03/026120.abstract
AB The social network structure of animal populations has major implications for survival, reproductive success, sexual selection, and pathogen transmission of individuals. But as of yet, no general theory of social network structure exists that can explain the diversity of social networks observed in nature, and serve as a null model for detecting species and population-specific factors. Here we propose a simple and generally applicable model of social network structure. We consider the emergence of network structure as a result of social inheritance, in which newborns are likely to bond with maternal contacts, and via forming bonds randomly. We compare model output to data from several species, showing that it can generate networks with properties such as those observed in real social systems. Our model demonstrates that important observed properties of social networks, including heritability of network position or assortative associations, can be understood as consequences of social inheritance.