1. The submissive pattern of postconflict affiliation in asymmetric relationships: a test in male and sexually coerced female baboons
- Author
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Alice Baniel, Guy Cowlishaw, Christine E. Webb, Elise Huchard, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), Department of Anthropology [Stony Brook University], Stony Brook University [SUNY] (SBU), State University of New York (SUNY)-State University of New York (SUNY), Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University [Cambridge], Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (UMR ISEM), École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] : UR226, Harvard University, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), and Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] : UR226-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Chacma baboon ,chacma baboon ,Context (language use) ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Developmental psychology ,Sexual coercion ,Compliance (psychology) ,5. Gender equality ,[SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology ,medicine ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,sexual coercion ,Conflict escalation ,biology ,Aggression ,05 social sciences ,aggression ,biology.organism_classification ,[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance ,Test (assessment) ,reconciliation ,Conflict management ,Animal Science and Zoology ,medicine.symptom ,male–female association ,Psychology - Abstract
Reconciliation, or postconflict (PC) affiliation between former opponents, is a widespread conflict management strategy in animal societies, so-named for its relationship repair function. However, another possibility is that PC affiliation reflects a submissive response of victims towards aggressors to limit conflict escalation when the power imbalance between the opponents is large. Here we investigated this hypothesis in a highly asymmetric relationship context: heterosexual wild chacma baboon, Papio ursinus, dyads involving sexually receptive females, where sexual coercion by males is common. We found several lines of support for the submissive hypothesis in the context of sexual coercion. First, rates of sexual and nonsexual PC affiliative interactions in these dyads exhibited significant and comparable increases compared to baseline conditions (ca. three-fold). Second, the baseline strength of the heterosexual social bond (outside of an aggressive context) did not predict the likelihood of sexual and nonsexual PC affiliation. Third, mate-guarded females, who could not escape the proximity of their aggressor (and faced high risks of renewed aggression), exhibited the most PC affiliation with males. Finally, most PC affiliation sequences contained at least one sexual act, and the first sexual affiliative act was primarily initiated by females via presenting. This suggests that female victims affiliate in a submissive way by displaying sexual compliance to aggressive males. Nevertheless, we cannot exclude the co-occurrence of ‘true’ reconciliation: a quarter of PC affiliations between males and receptive females were exclusively nonsexual, and the first general affiliative act was equally initiated by males and females. Overall, our results suggest a mixed PC affiliation strategy in which submission may play an important role in highly asymmetric relationships and indicate that the function of PC affiliation may vary from submission to reconciliation depending on the species, dyads, individuals and conflicts under consideration. Future research on PC interactions would usefully consider this full spectrum.
- Published
- 2021
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