Intergroup Encounters Research Articles

The Critical Role of Perceived Academic Institutional Support among Students in a Divided Society

Abstract Background To promote health equity, nursing schools must foster student diversity and develop future nurses’ abilities to care for patients from different backgrounds. Although academic experiences play an essential role in promoting multiculturalism, in Israel, where the Jewish-Arab divide is deep and central, this could be challenging. This study examined the attitudes of Israeli Jewish and Arab nursing students concerning their interactions across group lines. Methods In December 2022, 362 undergraduate students completed a survey on the association between cultural intelligence (CQ), satisfaction with the college’s support, and intergroup social interaction. Results The findings revealed that (1) Arab students (minority group) demonstrated higher CQ, especially regarding awareness of cultural differences and motivation for intercultural encounters; (2) Arab students perceived the intergroup encounter with Jewish students as closer and warmer than Jewish students; (3) Arab students’ satisfaction with the college’s support was higher than that of Jewish students; (4) Structural Equation Modeling revealed that (χ2/df=1.61, CFI=.970, TLI=.955, NFI=.927, RMSEA=.041) the support provided by the educational academic setting serves as a primary explanatory factor in the association between CQ and social distance. Conclusions Educational institutions should ensure their students feel supported to facilitate closer social interactions. This emphasizes the importance of proactive measures to encourage diversity and cultural competence in nursing education. Such efforts may positively impact the students’ mental health and enhance patient care. Key messages • To foster student social interaction in divided societies, academia must ensure a high sense of support. • Proactive nursing education promoting diversity and cultural competence may benefit student mental health and patient care.

“Will they assume I’m racist?” How racial ingroup members’ stereotypical behavior impacts White Americans’ interracial interaction experiences

Three studies ( N = 1,427) examine White Americans’ threat and stress appraisals and coping strategies in imagined inter- and intraracial interactions when a nearby White person does something racist. White individuals report heightened concern about being stereotyped as racist (i.e., metastereotyping) following an ingroup member’s stereotype-confirming (vs. neutral) behavior (Studies 1–3). Moreover, across studies, these heightened metastereotypes predict greater anxiety, which in turn predicts anticipated coping strategies (e.g., increased motivation to disprove the stereotype). Additionally, relative to imagined interactions with a White partner, these consequences of witnessing a White person’s anti-Black bias are significantly stronger with a Black or Latinx (Studies 1 and 2) but not an Asian (Study 3, preregistered) interaction partner. This work highlights how an ingroup member’s racist behavior is a situational stressor for White people during intergroup encounters, engendering coping strategies to protect the self and manage the ensuing interaction.

Female Mate Choice in Wild Kenyan Blue Monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis).

Female mate choice may drive sexual selection, but discerning whether female behaviors reflect free expression of choice or responses to constraints can be difficult. We investigated the efficacy of female choice in wild blue monkeys using 10 years of behavior and paternity data (N = 178 male-female dyads). Although blue monkeys live modally in one-male polygynous groups, where male-biased intersexual power is expected, females can access multiple potential mates during seasonal male influxes and occasional intergroup encounters. Additionally, extra-group males sire offspring. We examined female resistance rates to male-initiated sexual interactions, and unsolicited proceptive behavior that females directed to males (corrected for male availability). Females seldom resisted male solicitation, but initiated sexual interactions more than males. Females generally preferred residents. Those who preferred non-residents tended to have residents with longer tenures, but neither female parity nor rank influenced the tendency to prefer non-residents vs. residents. The male most solicited by a particular female fathered that female's infant 82% of the time; odds of siring were 26 times higher for most vs. nonpreferred males. Female preference predicted paternity even more strongly among non-resident males, with odds of siring 33 times higher for most vs. nonpreferred non-residents. Neither female rank nor parity influenced her likelihood of having her preferred partner as sire. Paternity by preferred males did not affect infant survival. While we cannot fully discount the effect of male-male competition on paternity, these results suggest that blue monkey females can exercise choice successfully, even in a polygynous mating system.

The association between institutional setting, cultural intelligence and social interaction in a divided society: a study among students

PurposeThis study aims to explore the perception of students from conflicted groups studying nursing together regarding the intergroup encounter. Specifically, this study focused on Jewish and Arab students in a nursing undergraduate program at an Israeli college. This study focused on the association between two factors [students’ cultural intelligence (CQ) level and their satisfaction with the support provided by the college] and the degree of closeness or social interaction Arab and Jewish students experience.Design/methodology/approachAccordingly, 362 students completed three anonymous questionnaires during December 2022, focused on (1) CQ (2) satisfaction with the academic setting and (3) experience of intergroup social interaction.FindingsThe results revealed that (1) Arab students (minority group) demonstrated higher CQ than Jewish students, especially regarding awareness of cultural differences and motivation for intercultural encounters. (2) Arab students experienced the intergroup encounter with Jewish students as closer and warmer than Jewish students did. (3) Despite being a minority group in Israel, Arab students’ satisfaction with the college’s support was higher than that of Jewish students. (4) Satisfaction with the support provided by the college was the main factor associated with the sense of social interaction, having a higher correlation with it than the degree of CQ.Originality/valueFostering CQ through curricula alone is insufficient in shaping intergroup experiences of students studying together in a divided society. To encourage social interaction between students in academia in divided societies, educational institutions need to ensure their students’ sense of support is high.

Lethal combats in the forest among wild western gorillas

Lethal combats in the forest among wild western gorillas

Factors Affecting the Outcome and Intensity of Intergroup Encounters in Crested Macaques (Macaca nigra)

Conspecific animal groups often compete for access to fitness-enhancing resources. The more valuable the resource at stake is, the greater the costs groups can afford to outcompete their neighbours, leading to between-group conflicts. We investigated what factors affected intergroup encounter outcome (win, loss, or draw) and intensity (level of aggression and duration) in wild, crested macaques (Macaca nigra). We collected data on 158 dyadic intergroup encounters among three groups of crested macaques in Tangoko Nature Reserve (Indonesia) between November 2015 and July 2016. Intergroup encounters were more likely to have a clear winner the larger the group size difference was between the opposing groups and when both groups rarely used the intergroup encounter location. Groups tended to win in specific parts of their home range, regardless of the numerical advantage, the frequency of use of the intergroup encounter location and its distance to the closest core area. Most encounters involved aggression, but contact aggression was rare. None of our candidate predictors helped to explain the differences in intergroup encounter escalation. Male intergroup aggression was more common than female intergroup aggression. The probability of female and male participation in intergroup aggression increased with the participation of the other sex. Males chased and attacked females in their group (i.e., herded them) in most encounters. Our study suggests that intragroup sexual conflict occurs during intergroup encounters in crested macaques. More detailed and longer studies on intergroup participation may help to understand the factors behind crested macaque intergroup encounter outcome and intensity.

Difficulties, experiences, and feelings of the Palestinian female students from East Jerusalem regarding their intergroup encounter with Israeli-Jews in Israeli academic settings.

Difficulties, experiences, and feelings of the Palestinian female students from East Jerusalem regarding their intergroup encounter with Israeli-Jews in Israeli academic settings.

The role of anger in mediating the effects of procedural justice and injustice

Research has found that people’s perceptions of the extent to which authority figures behave in a procedurally just (or unjust) manner have powerful effects on a variety of outcomes. Procedural justice has been shown to influence people’s sense of obligation to obey and willingness to cooperate with the law and its agents, as well as people’s willingness to comply with the law and legal authorities. Yet very little research has examined the causal mechanisms through which the perceived fairness of procedures influences these outcomes. One possibility is that procedural injustice may trigger affective responses such as anger, frustration, or fear. In this study, we test the effects of three procedural justice conditions on a variety of outcomes using a laboratory-style experiment that simulates a police traffic stop. At the same time, we test the extent to which the relationships between procedural justice and these outcomes are mediated by people’s self-reported levels of anger. Our findings reveal that the treatment conditions had strong effects on self-reported anger, with the procedural justice condition decreasing anger, and the procedural injustice condition increasing anger. Moreover, the findings reveal that the treatment conditions also exerted indirect effects on all outcomes through anger. Taken together, these findings reinforce the importance of emotion in mediating the effects of procedural justice on a variety of outcomes during intergroup encounters.

Linking glucocorticoid variations to monthly and daily behavior in a wild endangered neotropical primate.

Identifying the factors swaying physiological stress levels in wild animals can help depict how they cope with environmental and social stressors, shedding light on their feeding ecology, behavioral plasticity, and adaptability. Here, we used noninvasive methods to explore the link between glucocorticoid levels and behavior in an endangered neotropical primate facing habitat fragmentation pressure, the black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus). We investigated monthly and day-to-day glucocorticoid variations independently to attempt to disentangle the complex nature of the adrenocortical activity. Between May 2019 to March 2020, we followed two groups of black lion tamarins in two different areas, a continuous forest and a small fragment, and gathered behavioral data (over 95 days in total; 8.6 ± 3.9 days/month) and fecal samples (Nsamples = 468; 4.93 ± 3.5 samples/day) simultaneously. Preliminary analyses enabled us to identify circadian variations linked to the biological rhythm, which were taken into account in subsequent models. Monthly analyses revealed that black lion tamarin fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels vary according to changes in activity budget associated with the fruit consumption, movement, and resting time of the groups. At a day-to-day level, while intergroup encounters led to increases in fecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations, we found that changes in food intake or activity level did not trigger physiological stress responses. These findings suggest that diet and ranging patterns, driven by food availability and distribution, influence physiological stress at a seasonal scale, while acute stressors such as interspecific competition trigger short-term stress responses. Exploring fecal glucocorticoid metabolite variations over different timescales can help uncover the predictive and reactive facets of physiological stress in wild species. Moreover, having a comprehensive understanding of the physiological state of species is a valuable conservation tool for evaluating how they cope in changing environments.

Context-dependent alarm responses in wild vervet monkeys

The alarm calls of nonhuman primates are occasionally cited as functionally equivalent to lexical word meaning in human language. Recently, however, it has become increasingly unlikely that one-to-one relations between alarm call structures and predator categories are the default, mainly because many call types are produced in multiple contexts, requiring more complex notions of meaning. For example, male vervet monkeys produce the same alarm calls during encounters with terrestrial predators and neighbouring groups, suggesting that recipients require additional information to attribute meaning to the calls. We empirically tested the hypothesis that vervet monkeys take contextual information into account when responding to each other's alarm calls. In playback experiments, we exposed subjects to recordings of male alarm barks during actual intergroup encounters (predator unlikely) or when there was no intergroup encounter (predator likely). Subjects responded more strongly in the no intergroup encounter situations, typically associated with discovering a hiding predator, measured in terms of startle responses, vigilance behaviour and gazing towards the presumed caller. We discuss the significance of using contextual information for meaning attribution in nonhuman primate communication.

Us, them, and the others: Testing for discrimination amongst outgroups in a single-piece nesting termite, Zootermopsis angusticollis.

Recognition of group members is an important adaptation in social organisms because it allows help to be directed toward kin or individuals that are likely to reciprocate, and harm to be directed toward members of competing groups. Evidence in a wide range of animals shows that responses to outgroups vary with context, suggesting that cues to group membership also depend on the social or environmental context. In termites, intergroup encounters are frequent and their outcomes highly variable, ranging from destruction of a colony to colony fusion. As well as genetic factors, nestmate recognition in social insects commonly relies on cues that are mediated by environmental factors such as food source. However, single-piece nesting termite colonies share nesting material and food source with rival colonies (their wood substrate serves as both). In principle, the shared environment of single-piece nesting termite colonies could constrain their ability to identify non-nestmates, contributing to some of the variation seen in encounters, but this has not been investigated. In this study, we raised incipient colonies of a single-piece nesting termite, Zootermopsis angusticollis, on two different wood types and conducted behavioral assays to test whether nestmate discrimination can be constrained by common environmental conditions. We found that non-nestmates elicited higher rates of identity checking and defense behavior compared to nestmates, but there was no effect of wood type on the strength of behavioral responses to non-nestmates. We also found that one key cooperative behavior (allogrooming) was performed equally toward both nestmates and non-nestmates. These findings offer no support for the hypothesis that common wood type constrains the nestmate recognition system of single piece nesting termites. We suggest that where groups encounter each other frequently in a common environment, selection will favor discrimination based on genetic and/or higher resolution environmentally mediated cues.

Prolegomena toward integrating social psychological and communicative parameters of intergroup relations

This prologue to a special issue on social psychological processes and intergroup communication begins by outlining the constituents of the field of intergroup communication. This includes many of the major publications, disciplines and orientations involved, the methods, social groups, and communicative features studied together with selected research paradigms, applied and social domains, and theories featured. The empirical articles that follow are discussed with respect to two fundamental issues. The first refers to a seminal distinction manifest in social identity theory, namely, how social interactions can be distinguished, conceptually and operationally, as either interindividual or intergroup. Consequently, the articles are discussed in terms how they are variably manifest as intergroup encounters. The second issue relates to past principles of intergroup communication that are articulated, refined, and elaborated further by recourse, in the main, to the emergent concepts in this special issue.

Intergroup Encounters in Urban Public Spaces: Everyday Strategies of Host Community Members Following a Refugee Influx

Some host community members (HCMs) develop positive attitudes toward refugees, while others do not. The current literature on perceptions of refugees offers different explanations for these varied responses to intergroup encounters (positive contact, negative contact, and exposure). Nevertheless, few scholars have examined the outcomes of intergroup relations at the microlevel to better understand the various impacts of intergroup encounters between HCMs and refugees. Even fewer scholars have focused on the everyday implications of HCMs’ attitudes toward refugees in response to changing local demographics. In this article, I argue that in addition to the type of intergroup encounters, the locations where these encounters occur at the neighborhood level serve as a critical factor in understanding HCMs’ sociospatial attitudes or their attitudes toward refugees at the microlevel of everyday life. In doing so, I introduce the concept of everyday strategies to describe the sociospatial attitudes that HCMs adopt in different types of urban public spaces following their encounters with refugees in neighborhoods that have experienced a large refugee influx. Empirically, the analysis draws on interviews conducted with 60 HCMs in Bursa, Turkey, in 2018 and, through the concept of everyday strategies, extends the literature on HCMs’ attitudes regarding refugees. Overall, this article contributes to the wider study of international migration by detailing the influence of microlevel intergroup encounters on HCMs’ sociospatial attitudes in a South-South forced migration context.

Peaces of music: understanding the varieties of peace that music-making can foster

ABSTRACT This article offers a new conceptual and theoretical model for researching music-based peacebuilding, an emerging interdisciplinary field that is characterised by heterogeneity of practices, concepts, and analytical approaches. Drawing upon findings from a scoping study of 62 peer-reviewed English language publications that describe music-based peacebuilding practices, it presents a typology of six varieties of peace that this work can foster. Each peace is constituted by a combination of four key variables in approaches to practice and implementation: intergroup encounter; intentional engagement with the extant conflict or politics that drive the need for peace-promoting work; sociality and opportunities for independent social interactions and affective ties; and the projection of the peace message to an external audience. The typology brings needed coherence to this diverse field, providing a nuanced framework for articulating the peacebuilding potential of music and for engaging critically with the possibilities, limitations, and complexities of creative contributions to peacebuilding.

Observations of golden-mantled tamarins (<i>Leontocebus tripartitus</i>) in Amazonian Ecuador


 
 
 Golden-mantled tamarins (Leontocebus tripartitus) are an understudied callitrichid primate whose geographic range extends from the Río Napo and Río Curaray in Perú into eastern Ecuador. Only one behavioral study of this species has been published to date, which focused on the population overlapping the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in Amazonian Ecuador over two decades ago. We reevaluated this same population via a two-month preliminary assessment of demography, ranging patterns, and behavior. We located five groups within a roughly 1 km radius of the station, with group sizes ranging from approximately 5 to 11 individuals. Most groups were unhabituated to human presence, but for one group that was well habituated we collected ranging and behavioral data over approximately 101 follow-hours. The group had a mean daily path length of 1,483 m and home range estimates of 25.9 to 39.9 ha, depending on the method used. Intergroup encounters occurred at a rate of 0.08 per follow hour. Group members exhibited substantial variation in cohesion, with individuals routinely traveling, foraging, and sleeping up to 40 m apart. We observed repeated use of several sleep sites as well as the use of a tree hole as a sleep site (the first recorded use for this species) and documented rapid-avoidance and mobbing anti-predator behaviors. These data suggest substantial changes to the Tiputini golden-mantled tamarin population and provide much needed information on callitrichids from the western Amazon, furthering our understanding of variation in socioecology across the callitrichid radiation overall.
 
 

Characterizing group and individual engagement in intergroup encounters between small groups of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) on St. Catherines Island, USA.

Primate species exhibit considerable variation in behavior and outcomes during intergroup encounters (IGEs). Social group characteristics, like group size, and individual traits, such as sex, rank, and reproductive status, within those groups can influence both IGE engagement and outcomes. To better understand the impact of group heterogeneity on IGEs, we must examine individual strategies to elucidate individual costs and benefits of engaging in these interactions. Here, we present a descriptive study of the IGEs between two small social groups of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) on St. Catherines Island, GA, USA. We distinguish between dyadic and multiple-individual interactions between groups to compare collective and individual agonistic engagement. All encounters occurred when the East Road group (N = 7 individuals) traveled from the center of their home range to the boundary with Windmill group's (N = 5 individuals) home range, indicating that East Road might have been actively testing this boundary for access to food resources, sleeping trees, and mating opportunities. We also found notable individual variation in participation during IGEs. The daughters of the highest-ranking females were the most-engaged in dyadic intergroup and intragroup aggression, had high "win" rates during intergroup dyadic encounters, and engaged in intergroup multiple-individual interactions at high levels. These findings indicate that they might value their home range more as "potential alphas" compared to other group members. Dominant females were the most engaged in multiple-individual interactions, suggesting that they contribute heavily to collective action that might result in a gain or loss of access to resources. Finally, these two small groups might be equally matched despite the two-individual group size disparity due to individual free-riding strategies. Future research should focus on individual strategies during IGEs to characterize the complex decisions and trade-offs that influence participation.

Cascading effects of social dynamics on the reproduction, survival, and population growth of mountain gorillas

AbstractWhilst the conservation impacts of density‐dependent population effects have been well studied, the impact that socially‐driven changes (e.g. group fissions that increase group density) can have on population growth in social species have only recently come to light. An increase in group density and intergroup encounters in a subpopulation of mountain gorillas Gorilla beringei beringei was shown to have driven a more than fourfold increase in infanticide, slowing population growth. In this study, we delve deeper into the consequences of these socially‐driven changes in group density, examining how patterns of reproduction and survival have changed in this subpopulation across more than 50 years. We show that adult female survival increased with strengthening conservation efforts early in the study, then remained stable, while age at first birth remained stable across the entire study. Interbirth intervals and female reproductive success did not vary significantly across time overall. However, socially‐driven increases in group density since the mid‐2000s appear to have had a cascade of effects. In addition to the increase in infant and adult male mortality from violence during intergroup encounters, higher encounter rates, and mortality were likely responsible for an increase in female transfers, which delayed reproduction. Females faced a 7.5‐month delay when transferring once and a 1.5‐year delay when transferring twice or more between births. We show these changes correspond with a 26.63% reduction in female reproductive success in 2007 to 2018, compared to 1994 to 2006, with females taking more than 2 years longer to produce an offspring that survived infancy. These findings demonstrate that social dynamics can have consequences for population growth beyond the immediate mortality effects of violent encounters. This further highlights the critical importance of social dynamics in the conservation of social species, particularly when populations are restricted to small or fragmented regions of habitat.

Who is expected to make contact? Interpretative repertoires related to an intergroup encounter between Finnish majority mothers and immigrant mothers.

Although the benefits of contact for positive intergroup relations are widely acknowledged, less is known about how group members construct the agency and responsibility of contact participants in intergroup encounters. Using critical discursive psychology, we analysed the interpretative repertoires that Finnish majority mothers (N=13) and mothers with an immigrant background (N=10) used when talking about a hypothetical intergroup encounter among Finnish and immigrant mothers in a 'family café' (a group for mothers and children). Our analysis identified five interpretative repertoires that differed in terms of the levels of categorization used (individual, group, motherhood) and how agency and responsibility for initiating contact were discursively attributed to the parties in the intergroup encounter. Overall, constructing someone as agentic did not automatically result in their being portrayed as more responsible for making contact. Respondents described contact to occur with only two repertoires, in which both agency and responsibility for initiating contact were discursively attributed to the same party. This highlights the need to consider both agency and sense of responsibility as possible factors preceding intergroup contact.

Transient co-singing of offspring and mothers in non-duetting Javan gibbons (Hylobates moloch)

While the vocalizations of non-human primates were thought to be innate, recent studies have revealed highly flexible vocalizations in immatures. This behavior suggests that social influences have an important role in developing vocalizations. Yet not much is known about how non-human primate vocalization develop and how the vocalizations of immature animals differ between sexes. Here, we analyzed 95 cases of co-singing between mothers and offspring out of 240 female songs from three groups of wild Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) in Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park, Indonesia, between 2009 and 2021. Hylobates moloch is one of only two gibbon species with pairs that do not duet. Instead, they produce sex-specific solo songs. We found that both offspring female and male H. moloch follow their mothers’ female-specific songs, similar to other duetting gibbon species. Immatures started co-singing with their mothers from 7 months old, but with an average starting age of about 24 months. As female offspring grew older, they co-sung with mothers more often while male offspring did not. After 7 years of age, both sexes stopped co-singing with their mothers and started singing alone, following their own sex-specific vocalizations. We did not find any relation between male offspring co-singing and territorial functions (e.g., co-singing more during intergroup encounters or closer to home range borders). Our results suggest that mothers’ songs may trigger male offspring and females to practice singing, but not specifically for males to defend territories. We highlight that despite the absence of duets, H. moloch develop their vocalizations from early infancy and throughout their maturation while co-singing with mothers. However, the level of co-singing varies depending on the sexes. Our study is the first to elucidate the sex-specific trajectories of vocal development in H. moloch across years, indicating that offspring in non-duetting gibbons co-sing with mothers like in duetting species.

Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal

Conflicts between social groups or "intergroup contests" are proposed to play a major role in the evolution of cooperation and social organization in humans and some nonhuman animal societies. In humans, success in warfare and other collective conflicts depends on both fighting group size and the presence and actions of key individuals, such as leaders or talismanic warriors. Understanding the determinants of intergroup contest success in other warlike animals may help to reveal the role of these contests in social evolution. Using 19 y of data on intergroup encounters in a particularly violent social mammal, the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), we show that two factors, the number of adult males and the age of the oldest male (the "senior" male), have the strongest impacts on the probability of group victory. The advantage conferred by senior males appears to stem from their fighting experience. However, the galvanizing effect of senior males declines as they grow old until, at very advanced ages, senior males become a liability rather than an asset and can be evicted. As in human conflict, strength in numbers and the experience of key individuals combine to determine intergroup contest success in this animal society. We discuss how selection arising from intergroup contests may explain a suite of features of individual life history and social organization, including male eviction, sex-assortative alloparental care, and adult sex ratio.