Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Hinterkappelen, Switzerland.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2012 Dec;27(12):679-88. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2012.09.003. Epub 2012 Oct 3.
'Social competence' refers to the ability of an individual to optimise its social behaviour depending on available social information. Although such ability will enhance social interactions and thus raise Darwinian fitness, its evolutionary and ecological significance has been largely ignored. Social competence is based on behavioural flexibility. We propose that the study of social competence requires an integrative approach that aims to understand how the brain translates social information into flexible behavioural responses, how flexibility might be constrained by the developmental history of an individual or by trade-offs with other (ecological) competences, and how social plasticity feeds back on fitness. Finally we propose a hypothesis of how social competence can become a driver of social evolution.
“社交能力”是指个体根据可用的社交信息优化其社交行为的能力。尽管这种能力会增强社交互动，从而提高达尔文适应度，但它的进化和生态意义在很大程度上被忽视了。社交能力基于行为灵活性。我们提出，研究社交能力需要一种综合方法，旨在了解大脑如何将社交信息转化为灵活的行为反应，个体的发展历史或与其他（生态）能力的权衡如何限制灵活性，以及社交可塑性如何反馈到适应度上。最后，我们提出了一个假设，即社交能力如何成为社会进化的驱动力。
