Young Christopher, Majolo Bonaventura, Heistermann Michael, Schülke Oliver, Ostner Julia
Primate Social Evolution Group, Courant Research Centre Evolution of Social Behaviour, Georg-August University, Göttingen 37077, Germany; Applied Behavioural Ecology and Ecosystems Research Unit, University of South Africa, Florida 1710, South Africa;
School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7TS, United Kingdom; and.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Dec 23;111(51):18195-200. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1411450111. Epub 2014 Dec 8.
In humans and obligatory social animals, individuals with weak social ties experience negative health and fitness consequences. The social buffering hypothesis conceptualizes one possible mediating mechanism: During stressful situations the presence of close social partners buffers against the adverse effects of increased physiological stress levels. We tested this hypothesis using data on social (rate of aggression received) and environmental (low temperatures) stressors in wild male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in Morocco. These males form strong, enduring, and equitable affiliative relationships similar to human friendships. We tested the effect of the strength of a male's top three social bonds on his fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) levels as a function of the stressors' intensity. The attenuating effect of stronger social bonds on physiological stress increased both with increasing rates of aggression received and with decreasing minimum daily temperature. Ruling out thermoregulatory and immediate effects of social interactions on fGCM levels, our results indicate that male Barbary macaques employ a tend-and-befriend coping strategy in the face of increased environmental as well as social day-to-day stressors. This evidence of a stress-ameliorating effect of social bonding among males under natural conditions and beyond the mother-offspring, kin or pair bond broadens the generality of the social buffering hypothesis.
在人类和 obligatory 群居动物中，社会关系薄弱的个体健康和适应性会受到负面影响。社会缓冲假说提出了一种可能的中介机制：在压力情境下，亲密社会伙伴的存在可缓冲生理压力水平升高带来的不利影响。我们利用摩洛哥野生雄性巴巴利猕猴（猕猴属）的社会压力源（遭受攻击的频率）和环境压力源（低温）数据对这一假说进行了测试。这些雄性猕猴形成了类似于人类友谊的牢固、持久且公平的亲和关系。我们测试了雄性猕猴排名前三的社会关系强度对其粪便糖皮质激素代谢物（fGCM）水平的影响，并将其作为压力源强度的函数。随着遭受攻击频率的增加以及每日最低温度的降低，更强的社会关系对生理压力的缓冲作用增强。排除了体温调节以及社会互动对 fGCM 水平的即时影响后，我们的结果表明，面对日益增加的环境压力以及日常社会压力源，雄性巴巴利猕猴采用了“照料与结盟”的应对策略。这一在自然条件下且超出母婴、亲属或配偶关系范围的雄性间社会关系对压力的缓解作用的证据，拓宽了社会缓冲假说的普遍性。 （注：原文中“obligatory”不太准确，推测可能是“obligate”的形容词形式，意为“专性的”，这里保留原文未翻译，因不确定准确意思。）
