Social networks and natural selection in changing societies

ongoing

Social interactions can improve support, resources and protection, but can also increase disease, stress and conflict. Consequently, for group-living species inc. humans, traits as diverse as personality, residence patterns, family-living and disease resistance all evolve in response to pros and cons of sociality. However, the direct links between sociality, health, fitness outcomes and ultimately natural selection are not well-known. KinSocieties reveals, for the first time, the benefits and costs of sociality accrued by individuals and whole societies in two complementary study species - humans and Asian elephants - facing current drastic changes in social structures due to break-down of kin networks. I use rare longitudinal data and two previously unstudied natural experiments to investigate effects of translocation to new social environments, addressed in 6 WPs: How have human social networks transformed with the modernisation of societies and associated with reproduction, cause of death and lifespan at different times? How does population structuring in humans affect reproduction, cause of death and lifespan? How does population structuring in Asian elephants affect reproduction, cause of death and lifespan? How is translocation to new area with/without kin or friends in humans related to subsequent integration, social networks, reproduction, lifespan and cause of death? How is translocation to new working units with or without kin, friends or social group in Asian elephants associated with stress, health, and friendship formation? Synthesize the costs & benefits of dynamic social structures in a modelling framework This research boldly combines approaches from social sciences, conservation, evolutionary demography and biology. The results have key theoretical and practical consequences, making also critical contributions to public health by revealing concrete costs and benefits tied to social relationships and their changes in the rapidly changing world of today.