School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2022 May 23;377(1851):20210148. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0148. Epub 2022 Apr 4.
Out-group conflict is rife in the natural world, occurring from primates to ants. Traditionally, research on this aspect of sociality has focused on the interactions between groups and their conspecific rivals, investigating contest function and characteristics, which group members participate and what determines who wins. In recent years, however, there has been increasing interest in the consequences of out-group conflict. In this review, we first set the scene by outlining the fitness consequences that can arise immediately to contest participants, as well as a broader range of delayed, cumulative and third-party effects of out-group conflict on survival and reproductive success. For the majority of the review, we then focus on variation in these fitness consequences of out-group conflict, describing known examples both between species and between populations, groups and individuals of the same species. Throughout, we suggest possible reasons for the variation, provide examples from a diverse array of taxa, and suggest what is needed to advance this burgeoning area of social evolution. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.
外群体冲突在自然界中很普遍,从灵长类动物到蚂蚁都存在。传统上,对这种社会性的研究主要集中在群体之间及其同种竞争之间的相互作用上,研究竞争的功能和特征,哪些群体成员参与,以及什么决定了谁能获胜。然而,近年来,人们对外群体冲突的后果越来越感兴趣。在这篇综述中,我们首先概述了竞争参与者立即产生的适应后果,以及外群体冲突对生存和繁殖成功的更广泛的延迟、累积和第三方影响。在综述的大部分内容中,我们重点介绍了外群体冲突这些适应后果的变化,描述了物种间以及同一物种的种群、群体和个体间的已知例子。贯穿全文,我们提出了这种变化的可能原因,并提供了来自不同分类群的例子,还提出了促进这一新兴社会进化领域发展所需的条件。本文是主题为“跨分类群的群体间冲突”的特刊的一部分。