Lee Phyllis C, Moss Cynthia J
Department of Psychology, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, United Kingdom.
J Comp Psychol. 2012 Aug;126(3):224-32. doi: 10.1037/a0026566.
Animal personalities have been demonstrated for almost 200 species, with stable dimensions of responses (aggressive to fearful; shy to bold) across contexts and with a heritable basis to these traits. As a long-lived and highly social species, elephants (Loxodonta africana) were expected to demonstrate complex dimensions to individual characteristics or personalities, which would be obvious to human observers and validated by behavioral observations. We used principal-components analysis of ratings on 26 behavioral adjectives applied to one social unit, coded as the EB family, which has been observed for 38 years. Eleven adult females were rated by four observers and found to have individually variable traits on four dimensions described by principal-components analysis. The first component was associated with effective and confident family leadership. Component 2 was age-related, and defined by playfulness, exploration and high levels of activity, suggesting both an experience and an age-related element to its structure. Component 3 represented gentleness and at its other extreme, aggression, and Component 4 was related to constancy (predictability and popularity), with both of these latter components reflecting social integration. Leadership among elephant females represents the successful negotiation among individual interests, and our components were related to a capacity to affect the behavior of others in the absence of aggressive dominance. The family matriarch, Echo, was high on elements associated with leadership. The importance of the matriarch in this family's success suggests that elements of personality may underlie interfamilial variation in long-term survival and reproduction.
动物个性已在近200个物种中得到证实，其反应维度（从攻击性到恐惧；从害羞到大胆）在不同情境下保持稳定，且这些特征具有遗传基础。作为一种长寿且高度社会化的物种，大象（非洲象）被认为会展现出个体特征或个性的复杂维度，这些维度对人类观察者来说显而易见，并能通过行为观察得到验证。我们对应用于一个被编码为EB家族的社会单位的26个行为形容词评级进行主成分分析，该家族已被观察了38年。四位观察者对11只成年雌性大象进行了评级，发现它们在主成分分析所描述的四个维度上具有个体可变的特征。第一个成分与有效且自信的家族领导力相关。成分2与年龄有关，由活泼、探索和高活动水平定义，这表明其结构中既有经验因素又有与年龄相关的因素。成分3代表温和，在另一个极端则是攻击性，成分4与稳定性（可预测性和受欢迎程度）有关后两个成分都反映了社会融合。大象雌性中的领导力代表了个体利益之间的成功协商，我们的成分与在没有攻击性主导的情况下影响其他个体行为的能力有关。家族女家长埃科在与领导力相关的因素上得分很高。女家长在这个家族成功中的重要性表明，个性因素可能是长期生存和繁殖中家族间差异的基础。
