Dynamic Relationships between Information Transmission and Social Connections
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Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors
Published on: January 25, 2018
Ipek G Kulahci1, John L Quinn2
1School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, Distillery Fields, North Mall Campus, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Abstract:
Understanding the drivers of sociality is a major goal in biology. Individual differences in social connections determine the overall group structure and have consequences for a variety of processes, including if and when individuals acquire information from conspecifics. Effects in the opposite direction, where information acquisition and transmission have consequences for social connections, are also likely to be widespread. However, these effects are typically overlooked. We propose that individuals who successfully learn about their environment become valuable social partners and become highly connected, leading to feedback-based dynamic relationships between social connections and information transmission. These dynamics have the potential to change our understanding of social evolution, including how selection acts on behavior and how sociality influences population-level processes.
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