Animals living in larger social networks were found to have higher social abilities and "intelligence", state researchers of a new study.
Researchers from Duke University have found that animals living in larger social networks have higher social intelligence. The study is the first of its kind and was conducted on 60 lemurs belonging to six different species living at the Duke Lemur Center to see whether and how they stole a piece of food kept within their site.
The study was carried out in three experiments. The first one had two humans sitting with a plate of food. While one human sat facing the plate, the other had his back turned to it. The second experiment had both humans sit in profile, either facing the plate or not. The third experiment had blindfolds tied over either their mouth or eyes and both faced the plate. The lemurs were then made to enter the room.
Researchers observed that lemurs belonging to a larger social network like the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) were more aware of cues that someone may be watching them while lemurs from small-group species, like the mongoose lemur (Eulemur mongoz) were less sensitive to such cues, revealed Evan MacLean, a research scientist in the Department Of Evolutionary Anthropology who led the research team in a press release. However, irrespective of what social network they belonged to, not many lemurs understood the concept of blindfolds.
Authors of the study note that their findings support the "social intelligence hypothesis," which suggests that living in large social networks drove the evolution of complex social cognition in primates, including humans.
The findings were published online June 27 in PLOS ONE.
