Abstract
Social relationships profoundly impact health in social species. Much of what we know regarding the impact of affiliative social relationships on health in nonhuman primates (NHPs) has focused on the structure of connections or the quality of relationships. The influence of relationship dimensionality (e.g., the breadth of affiliative behaviors used) on health and fitness outcomes remains unknown. Here we explored how social networks containing dyads with either multiplex (dyads both groom and huddle) or uniplex (dyads only groom) affiliative relationships differ in their structure and association with biomarkers of inflammation, an indicator of individual health risk. Being strongly embedded in multiplex affiliative networks, which were more modular and kin biased, was associated with lower inflammation (IL-6, TNF-alpha). In contrast, being well connected in uniplex networks, which were more strongly linked with social status, was associated with greater inflammation. Results suggest that multiplex affiliative relationships may function as supportive relationships that promote health. In contrast, the function of uniplex affiliative relationships may be more transactional and may incur physiological costs. This complexity is important to consider for understanding the mechanisms underlying the association of social relationships on human and animal health.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
We have added a supplementary file containing the code used to analyze the data in the manuscript. One authors affiliation was also corrected.