Sociability and responses to video playbacks in adult male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

Abstract

Studies of several primate species have suggested the existence of a personality dimension typically labeled ‘Sociability,’ which reflects an animal’s tendency to interact with others. The hypothesis that Sociability is related to social skill was tested in the present study by exposing six high- and six low-Sociable adult male rhesus macaques to videotaped presentations of unfamiliar males displaying aggressive or affiliative behaviors. Low-Sociable animals displayed higher frequencies of yawn, lower activity and tended to have higher durations of watching during the presentations that displayed social signals, and significantly fewer lipsmacks to presentations that depicted no social behavior. In response to viewing threats, tooth-grinds, yawns, and lipsmacks, both low- and high-Sociable animals’ most frequent response was to gaze avert; low-Sociable animals, however, had nearly twice the latency to gaze avert than did high-Sociable animals. The low-Sociable animals’ greater tendency to ‘sit and stare’ during the videotaped playbacks suggests that low-Sociable animals have poorer social skills. The possible developmental origins of variation in Sociability, and the functional consequences of such variation for survival and reproduction are discussed.