Abstract
Behavioral contagion is suggested to promote group coordination that may facilitate activity transitions, increased vigilance, and state matching. Apart from contagious yawning, however, very little attention has been given to this phenomenon, and studies on contagious yawning in primates have so far only focused on Old World monkeys and apes. Here we studied behavioral contagion in common marmosets, a species for which group coordination and vigilance are paramount. In particular, we investigated the contagiousness of yawning, stretching, scratching, tongue protrusion, gnawing, and scent-marking. We coded these behaviors from 14 adult marmosets, from two different social groups. During testing sessions, animals were separated into groups of four individuals for 20-min observation periods, across three distinct diurnal time points (morning, midday, and afternoon) to test for circadian patterns. We observed almost no yawning (0.12 yawns/h) and very little stretching behavior. For all other behaviors, which were more common, we found several temporal and inter-individual differences (i.e., sex, age, dominance status) predictive of these responses. Moreover, we found that gnawing and scent-marking, which almost always co-occurred as a fixed-action pattern, were highly temporally clustered within observation sessions. We discuss the relative absence of yawning in marmosets as well as the possible function of contagious scent-marking, and provide suggestions for future research into the proximate and ultimate functions of these behaviors in marmosets.
Highlights
Contagious behavior can be defined as “behavior that is automatically triggered, or released, by the similar behavior of others” (Zentall, 2003)
Patterns of behavioral contagion have been suggested to promote group coordination that may aid in rest-activity transitions (Deputte, 1994), social cohesion (Conradt and Roper, 2000), vigilance (Miller et al, 2012a; Hare et al, 2014), and/or state matching (Osvath and Sima, 2014)
Descriptive Analyses (For Graphical Representation of Significant Effects, Please See Supplemental Information (SI)) The videos confirmed that yawning and tongue protrusion are different behaviors in marmosets; i.e., whereas tongue protrusions are performed with a relatively relaxed open mouth and open eyes, yawns are characterized by a wide opening/stretching of the mouth and the closing of the eyes, and no protrusion of the tongue
Summary
Contagious behavior can be defined as “behavior that is automatically triggered, or released, by the similar behavior of others” (Zentall, 2003). Contagious yawning has been reported for chimpanzees (Anderson et al, 2004; Campbell et al, 2009; Campbell and de Waal, 2011; Massen et al, 2012; Amici et al, 2014), bonobos (Demuru and Palagi, 2012; Palagi et al, 2014; but see Amici et al, 2014), gelada baboons (Palagi et al, 2009) domestic dogs in response to humans (Joly-Mascheroni et al, 2008; Silva et al, 2012; Madsen and Persson, 2013; Romero et al, 2013; but see Harr et al, 2009; O’Hara and Reeve, 2011; Buttner and Strasser, 2014), budgerigars (Miller et al, 2012b; Gallup et al, 2015), wolves (Romero et al, 2014), and a subline of high-frequency yawning rats (Moyaho et al, 2015). A study on stump-tailed macaques (Paukner and Anderson, 2006) showed that yawning could be induced in this species by showing videos of yawning conspecifics, yet the co-occurring high frequencies of selfdirected behaviors alongside the video presentation suggested that the enhanced yawning was likely due to stress rather than contagion, again emphasizing the difficulties in interpreting possible underlying mechanisms
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