The ecology and evolution of intergroup conflict in animal societies: theory and tests

地球上生命的历史一直被生物组织中的一系列合作转变所主导，在这些转变中，较低级别的实体聚集在一起，形成更高级别的合作群体。合作的演变为群体内部的富有成效的协调和团队合作创造了机会，但也有可能在群体之间发生破坏性的冲突和暴力。例如，人类能够做出令人震惊的利他主义和合作的壮举，但同时也是我们所知的最凶残和最暴力的动物之一。在其他动物中，群体间冲突的强度和形式有很大的差异，但我们对这种差异的原因了解很少。群体间冲突和合作之间的联系也不清楚：在一些物种中，群体间冲突导致更大的社会凝聚力，而在其他物种中，它导致更大的群体内攻击性。我们的项目结合了新的理论和实证检验来解释这些相互矛盾的观察结果，并促进对群体间冲突的生物学根源的概念性理解。我们的理论模型将预测促进或抑制群体间攻击的生态和社会因素，以及个人和群体应如何应对群体间冲突水平的变化。我们将在一种非常适合的野生哺乳动物系统--斑点猫鼬Mungos Mungo上对这些模型进行第一次测试，我们在乌干达的现场已经研究了20年。斑点猫鼬生活在高度合作的地域性群体中，这些群体经常发生群间斗殴。与猫鼬、黑猩猩或任何其他非人类哺乳动物相比，斑点猫鼬的群体间攻击性更严重。然而，个体和群体之间的攻击性水平也存在很大差异，这为使用实验和长期观察来检验我们的理论预测提供了机会。这项研究将更好地理解自然界中的竞争模式，并澄清群体间冲突与合作之间的联系。我们将留下一个可测试的理论框架，可以应用于从微生物到人类的非常广泛的物种。该项目将具有许多跨学科的兴趣，有可能影响未来在进化论、心理学、经济学和政治学方面的研究。

The history of life on earth has been dominated by a series of cooperative transitions in biological organisation, in which lower-level entities have banded together to form higher-level cooperative groups. The evolution of cooperation creates opportunities for productive coordination and teamwork within groups, but also the potential for destructive conflict and violence between groups. Humans, for example, are capable of astonishing feats of altruism and cooperation, but are at once among the most murderous and violent animals we know. In other animals there is great variation in the intensity and form of intergroup conflict, but we have a very poor understanding of the causes of this variation. The link between intergroup conflict and cooperation is also unclear: in some species intergroup conflict leads to greater social cohesion, whereas in other species it leads to greater within-group aggression. Our project combines new theory and empirical testing to explain these conflicting observations and to advance conceptual understanding of the biological roots of intergroup conflict. Our theoretical models will predict the ecological and social factors that promote or inhibit intergroup aggression, and how individuals and groups should respond to changes in levels of intergroup conflict. We will carry out the first tests of these models on an ideally suited wild mammal system, the banded mongoose Mungos mungo, which we have studied for 20 years at site in Uganda. Banded mongooses live in highly cooperative, territorial groups which engage in frequent intergroup fights. Intergroup aggression is more severe in banded mongooses than in meerkats, chimpanzees, or any other non-human mammal. Yet there is also great individual and group variation in levels of intergroup aggression, providing an opportunity to test our theoretical predictions using experiments and long-term observations. The research will provide a better understanding of patterns of competition in nature, and clarify the link between intergroup conflict and cooperation. We will leave a testable theoretical framework that can be applied to a very wide range of species, from microbes to humans. The project will be of much interdisciplinary interest, with the potential to influence future research in evolution, psychology, economics and political science.