Mongoose Markets: The Provision and Value of Public Goods

Mongoose 市场：公共产品的提供和价值

• 批准号: NE/X000362/1
• 负责人: Andrew Radford
• 金额: $ 82.25万
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX000362%2F1
• 关键词: Mongoose; Markets; Provision; Value; Public

The trading of goods and services is a fundamental component of human societies, but we are not unique: throughout the animal world, individuals exchange cooperative acts in 'biological markets'. There are lots of examples of non-human animals trading a commodity for itself (e.g., grooming for grooming) or trading one commodity for another (e.g., grooming for help in fights with others). However, our understanding of this market trading has been limited in two main ways. First, by a focus on situations where just one individual receives a benefit (like when someone carries the shopping of a friend). In reality, many cooperative behaviours have multiple beneficiaries (like when someone picks litter in a park). So-called 'public goods' have profoundly different effects on others and so influence relationships between group members in very different ways. The second limitation is a paucity of experiments in natural conditions, which are crucial to avoid measuring odd effects of captive living and to determine exactly how one behaviour influences another (i.e., causality). In this project, we will investigate social factors driving variation in the provision and value of public goods in biological markets. To do so, we will generate new theory from computational modelling and test the predictions using the cross-commodity trading of sentinel behaviour (acting as a raised look-out) and grooming in a tractable wild population of dwarf mongooses.New theory is needed because existing models of biological markets have generally focused on exclusive partnerships in large populations and the trading of single commodities with individual recipients. We will use cutting-edge methods to model the more common scenario where different commodities (including public goods) are exchanged in small family groups where groupmates with non-exclusive friendships repeatedly interact with one another. Dwarf mongooses, Africa's smallest carnivore, are ideal for the testing of our predictions for several reasons. Groups comprise 5-30 individuals who sleep in a burrow, forage and travel together within a shared territory. Throughout the day, all adults act as sentinels - a cooperative act of public good because the individual suspends foraging, adopts a raised position to scan for danger and provides vocal information about danger to all groupmates - and then groupmates groom one another at the burrow before bedtime. Grooming is important both to reduce ectoparasites living in their fur and to maintain social relationships. We have studied these charismatic creatures for over a decade, so have huge amounts of data (from 81 group-years) on sentinel contributions, grooming patterns and the lives of over 200 individuals. Moreover, we have habituated the study population to our close presence, which enables us to collect body-mass data and run experiments (e.g., manipulations of grooming, perceived sentinel contributions and predation risk) in natural conditions.By developing and testing new theory with both long-term data and the results of field experiments, we will determine how (a) the provision of public goods is influenced by receipt of a different commodity and competition among providers, and (b) the value of public goods is affected by their supply and demand. In doing so, we will deepen our understanding of biological markets, group dynamics, cooperation and social evolution, which are topics of interest to a wide range of biologists. Since cooperation and market trading have major interdisciplinary implications, our research will also complement that of anthropologists, psychologists, economists and social scientists. Finally, because helping others is a trait that we admire in family, friends and colleagues, we will use a programme of public engagement activities to enthuse and inform a wider audience about our research on social interactions and the importance of understanding the natural world through blue-skies research.

商品和服务的交易是人类社会的基本组成部分，但我们并不是独一无二的：在整个动物世界中，个人在“生物市场”中交换合作行为。有很多例子是非人类动物自身交易商品（例如，修饰修饰）或将一种商品交换为另一种商品（例如，修饰与他人打架的帮助）。但是，我们对这一市场交易的理解受到了两种主要方式的限制。首先，专注于只有一个人获得利益的情况（例如，当有人携带朋友购物时）。实际上，许多合作行为都有多个受益者（例如，当有人在公园里捡垃圾时）。所谓的“公共物品”对他人具有深远的影响，因此以截然不同的方式影响小组成员之间的关系。第二个局限性是在自然条件下实验的匮乏，这对于避免测量圈养生活的奇怪影响至关重要，并确切确定一种行为如何影响另一种行为（即因果关系）。在这个项目中，我们将调查社会因素推动生物市场公共物品的提供和价值的差异。为此，我们将使用哨兵行为的跨商品交易（充当抬高的监视）来生成新的理论，并在可行的矮牛奶杂种野生种群中进行修饰。新理论是需要的。我们将使用尖端的方法来建模更常见的情况，在这种情况下，在小型家庭群体中交换了不同的商品（包括公共物品），在这些群体中，具有非排他性友谊的团体反复互动。非洲最小的食肉动物矮人蒙古斯（Dwarf Mongooses）非常适合测试我们的预测，原因有几个原因。小组组成了5-30个人，他们在洞穴中睡觉，觅食和在共同领土内一起旅行。整天，所有成年人都充当哨兵 - 一种合作的公共利益行为，因为个人暂停觅食，采取了高架立场来扫描危险，并提供了有关所有团体危险的声音信息 - 然后在睡前之前的Burrow中互相培养。修饰对于减少生活在其皮毛中和维持社会关系的外寄生虫既重要。我们已经研究了这些超凡魅力的生物已有十多年了，因此在哨兵贡献，修饰模式和200多个人的生活中拥有大量数据（来自81个小组年）。此外，我们已经将研究人群习惯了我们的近距离存在，这使我们能够在自然条件下收集人体质量的数据并进行实验（例如，对修饰，可感知的前哨贡献和捕食风险的操纵，可感知的前哨贡献和捕食风险）在自然状态下。通过开发和测试新的理论，并通过长期数据和实地实验的结果来确定公共商品和竞争的竞争，我们将确定（a）对公共商品的影响和竞争的影响。公共物品的供求影响。通过这样做，我们将加深对生物市场，群体动态，合作和社会进化的理解，这是广泛的生物学家感兴趣的主题。由于合作和市场交易具有重大的跨学科影响，我们的研究还将补充人类学家，心理学家，经济学家和社会科学家的研究。最后，由于帮助他人是我们在家人，朋友和同事中欣赏的一个特征，因此我们将使用一项公共参与活动计划来激发和向更广泛的受众介绍我们关于社会互动的研究以及通过蓝冰研究了解自然世界的重要性。