Social Grooming Behavior Research Articles

I wanna share this, but…: explicating invested costs and privacy concerns of social grooming behaviors in Facebook and users’ well-being and social capital

I wanna share this, but…: explicating invested costs and privacy concerns of social grooming behaviors in Facebook and users’ well-being and social capital

Longitudinal Social Grooming Transition Patterns on Facebook, Social Capital, and Well-Being

AbstractThe longitudinal associations between Facebook use and well-being have received limited exploration with mixed results. We argue that the transition pattern of an individual’s social grooming style based on five social grooming behaviors at different times—referred to as the social grooming transition pattern—is the key to exploring this issue. Based on the social grooming style framework, we employed latent transition analysis through a nationally representative, three-year panel survey (N = 710) in Taiwan. We found that active users remained active in social grooming behavior and had options to shift, and inactive users largely remained inactive in terms of Facebook social grooming style. The results indicated that persistent social image managers gained the most social capital and well-being, greater than persistent social butterflies and those who transitioned from image managers to social butterflies, indicating that adopting strategic social grooming styles in the long-term delivered the best social outcomes.Lay SummaryThe long-term interaction between Facebook use and well-being has received limited attention with mixed results. One way to examine this is to study changes in the way that we “groom” one another in Facebook. That is, how we socially interact with others by discussing different topics with various styles and strategies. Based on the social grooming framework, we provide the first study employing latent transition analysis (i.e., to track how people change or maintain their social grooming style across time) to examine this issue using a nationally representative, three-year panel survey from Taiwan. Our study shows that most people maintain a stable user style over time. However, some become less active (e.g., they become “maintainers” or “lurkers”). Thus, the majority of Taiwanese users often do not create their own postings, but rather comment on, or simply view, the content of other Facebook users. By contrast, users who actively groom (e.g., those who are persistent “social butterflies” or “image managers”) continue to create online posts. Our analysis shows that users who are highly social benefit from greater bridging social capital. However, the strategically active social groomer is the winner as they benefit by gaining greater bridging social capital, social connectedness, and social life satisfaction.

Social contact behaviors are associated with infection status for Trichuris sp. in wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus).

Social grooming in the animal kingdom is common and serves several functions, from removing ectoparasites to maintaining social bonds between conspecifics. We examined whether time spent grooming with others in a highly social mammal species was associated with infection status for gastrointestinal parasites. Of six parasites detected, one (Trichuris sp.) was associated with social grooming behaviors, but more specifically with direct physical contact with others. Individuals infected with Trichuris sp. spent significantly less time grooming conspecifics than those not infected, and time in direct contact with others was the major predictor of infection status. One model correctly predicted infection status for Trichuris sp. with a reliability of 95.17% overall when the variables used were time spent in direct contact and time spent grooming others. This decrease in time spent grooming and interacting with others is likely a sickness behavior displayed by individuals with less energy or motivation for non-essential behaviors. This study emphasizes the possible links between host behavior and parasitic infections and highlights the need for an understanding of a study population's parasitic infections when attempting to interpret animal behavior.

Nocturnal mother–juvenile offspring interaction at the beginning of the juvenile period in free-ranging spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi): a report on two cases

The objective of this study was to describe the nocturnal behavior patterns of the interaction between mothers and their juvenile offspring at the beginning of the juvenile period in two dyads of free-ranging spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). Based on direct field observation, we recorded six interaction behaviors between mothers and their juvenile offspring at nighttime and during the daylight period. The frequencies and proportions of each behavior recorded were analyzed for both conditions, and qualitative descriptions of each behavior were made. Observations revealed that the percentage of proximity in the dyads tended to increase at nighttime compared to the daylight period. In one of the dyads, we observed that the percentage of grooming also showed an upward tendency at nighttime compared to the daylight period. The dyads remained together to sleep during all 8 days of the study and were seen to seek arm-in-arm contact and to perform grooming behaviors. Our results suggest that mother–juvenile interaction at the onset of the juvenile period in spider monkeys may be characterized by greater proximity and social grooming behaviors, while the nocturnal observations suggest a strong attachment between mothers and their juveniles in this stage.

Characterizing grooming behavior patterns and the influence of brush access on the behavior of group-housed dairy calves

Group housing allows for dairy calves to perform social grooming behavior; however, the use of mechanical brushes may influence how calves groom themselves and others. Our objectives were, first, to characterize the bout characteristics of brush use, self-grooming, and allogrooming in calves and, second, to evaluate the effects of access to a rotating brush on grooming behavior. Holstein heifer and bull calves (n = 32) were group-housed (4 calves/group) at 2 wk of life (17 ± 3 d of age; mean ± standard deviation) and followed to wk 7 of life. Pens were assigned to receive either a rotating brush (BR; n = 4 pens) or no brush (CON; n = 4 pens). Behavior was recorded continuously for 12 h for 2 focal calves/pen on 2 d during wk 4, 6, and 7 of life. We performed a bout analysis by fitting a mixture of normal distributions to the log10-transformed frequency distribution of the intervals between recorded periods of behavior. We calculated bout criteria for brush use (125.9 s), allogrooming (125.9 s), and self-grooming (a mixture of 3 normal distributions provided the best fit for these data, providing 2 bout criteria: a shorter (micro) bout criterion of 50.1 s and a longer (macro) criterion of 1,000 s). Brush use was consistent across weeks, and calves used the brush for 20.5 ± 6.1 min/12 h observation period, in 31.1 ± 1.7 bouts (mean ± SE). The frequency and duration of allogrooming bouts did not differ between treatments and across time. The BR calves tended to self-groom more than CON calves (16.3 vs. 14.3 min/12 h; BR vs. CON; SE = 0.68), and time spent self-grooming decreased across weeks. The frequency and duration of self-grooming micro bouts did not differ between treatments, but BR calves had shorter, more frequent self-grooming macro bouts (10.58 vs. 9.46 bouts; BR vs. CON; SE = 0.24). In summary, we determined that bout criteria could be fitted to grooming behaviors, which may be useful when characterizing these behaviors in future work, and that providing access to a rotating brush influenced self-grooming behavior in group-housed calves.

Impaired social behaviors and minimized oxytocin signaling of the adult mice deficient in the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor GluN3A subunit

The N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of neurological diseases, such as schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD), whose unique clinical hallmark is a constellation of impaired social and/or cognitive behaviors. GluN3A (NR3A) is a unique inhibitory subunit in the NMDAR complex. The role of GluN3A in social behavioral activities is obscure. In this study, we sought to evaluate altered social activities in adult GluN3A knockout (KO) mice. GluN3A KO mice spent less time in reciprocal social interaction in the social interaction test compared to wild-type (WT) mice. A social approach test using a three-chamber system confirmed that mice lacking GluN3A had lower sociability and did not exhibit a preference for social novelty. GluN3A KO mice displayed abnormal food preference in the social transmission of food preference task and low social interaction activity in the five-trial social memory test, but without social memory deficits. Using a home cage monitoring system, we observed reduced social grooming behavior in GluN3A KO mice. Signaling genes that might mediate the altered social behaviors were examined in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus. Among nine genes examined, the expression of the oxytocin receptor was significantly lower in the prefrontal cortex of GluN3A KO mice than that in WT mice. Oxytocin treatment rescued social activity deficits in GluN3A KO mice. These findings support a novel idea that a chronic state of moderate increases in NMDAR activities may lead to downregulation of the oxytocin signaling and impaired behavioral activities that are seen in psychiatric/neurodegenerative disorders.

Effects of MDMA Injections on the Behavior of Socially-Housed Long-Tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis).

3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methyl amphetamine (MDMA) is one of the few known molecules to increase human and rodent prosocial behaviors. However, this effect has never been assessed on the social behavior of non-human primates. In our study, we subcutaneously injected three different doses of MDMA (1.0, 1.5 or 2.0mg/kg) to a group of three, socially housed, young male long-tailed macaques. More than 200 hours of behavioral data were recorded, during 68 behavioral sessions, by an automatic color-based video device that tracked the 3D positions of each animal and of a toy. This data was then categorized into 5 exclusive behaviors (resting, locomotion, foraging, social contact and object play). In addition, received and given social grooming was manually scored. Results show several significant dose-dependent behavioral effects. At 1.5mg/kg only, MDMA induces a significant increase in social grooming behavior, thus confirming the prosocial effect of MDMA in macaques. Additionally, at 1.5 and 2.0 mg/kg MDMA injection substantially decreases foraging behavior, which is consistent with the known anorexigenic effect of this compound. Furthermore, at 2.0 mg/kg MDMA injection induces an increase in locomotor behavior, which is also in accordance with its known stimulant property. Interestingly, MDMA injected at 1.0mg/kg increases the rate of object play, which might be interpreted as a decrease of the inhibition to manipulate a unique object in presence of others, or, as an increase of the intrinsic motivation to manipulate this object. Together, our results support the effectiveness of MDMA to study the complex neurobiology of primates’ social behaviors.

Body image 2.0: Associations between social grooming on Facebook and body image concerns

A cross-sectional survey (N=186) was conducted to examine the relationships between young women’s and men’s social media use and body image attitudes—the drive for thinness and the drive for muscularity. Prior research has found relationships between exposure to traditional mass media and body image concerns. Drawing on social comparison theory, this study attempted to determine if similar relationships could be found for social media use. Results of this study indicated that simple exposure (time spent on social media) was not related to body image concerns. Online social grooming behaviors, such as viewing and commenting on peer’s profiles, however, were significantly correlated with the drive for thinness for both female and male participants. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that appearance comparison mediated the relationship between social grooming behaviors and the drive for thinness.

Circadian Rhythmicity of Grooming Behavior During Pregnancy in a Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) Family Group in Captivity

One family group of common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) was observed in captivity under natural environmental conditions to describe the circadian pattern of grooming behavior during the pregnancy of the reproductive female. The animals were observed by focal sampling, from the beginning to the end of animal's active phase, during two non-consecutive days per week, from August to November 1996. The duration of self-grooming and social grooming behavior of each animal were totalled each hour. The time series obtained were analyzed by Cluster Analysis and by Sin gle Cosinor Analysis. The daily patterns of grooming behavior during pregnancy were divided by Cluster Analysis into two stages, one corresponding to the second half of the third month of pregnancy, and the other from the last half of the third month to the last week before parturition. The confidence intervals of acrophases overlapped in all stages. The acrophases values of the first stage occurred between 10:09 h and 11:00 h, and on the second stage between 8:51 h and 11:13 h. The daily pattern of grooming behavior of adult male and female showed a trend to increase in the first hours of the active phase. This trend to advance grooming behavior during the second stage of pregnancy may be due to an effect of the coming parturition itself or to seasonal influences.

Quantitative analysis of social grooming behavior of the honey bee Apis mellifera carnica

We observed social grooming behavior in the Carniolan bee, Apis mellifera carnica. Bouts of grooming lasted up to 45 s, and were directed to the wing axis (44.6%), the petiolus (18%) and the sternite regions of abdomen (2.8%) of the receiving bee (41 bees). During grooming, the receiving bees held their wings perpendicular to the body axis. Groomer bees most often cleaned those body parts which could not be reached during self-cleaning by receiving bees. During 18% of the grooming time, groomer bees cleaned their own mouth parts and antennae. The grooming behavior removed dust and pollen from the wing bases and petiolus and realigned the body hairs. No attempts to remove Varroa mites were observed during self-cleaning or social grooming behavior