Contagious by Nature: Understanding Optimisation of Social Networks in Wild Populations

在任何社会中，将个人联系在一起的各种形式的社会互动的无形网络都可以被概念化为他们的“社会网络”。这一网络为社会传染性因素的传播提供了途径，既带来了基本利益（如传播信息），也付出了巨大代价（如传染病）。因此，存在“社会权衡”，即社会联系提供了对个人生活和社会功能（例如，新的创新、合作行动）至关重要的基本要素，但也为有害的传染（例如，病毒）提供了传播途径。许多问题围绕着这些传染中的权衡：个人在网络中的位置如何才能获得对他们最重要的利益，同时避免风险？哪种类型的社会纽带和关系形成了不同的传染？一个社会应该如何构建以促进积极的传染，同时控制有害的传播？值得注意的是，最近的covid - 19大流行清楚地说明了这一点，各国在控制传染病的同时努力维持社会运作。然而，这里的考虑实际上是一般的任何社会系统暴露于传染，这一拟议的研究旨在提供新的经验为基础的见解，为上述每个问题，因为理解目前仍然非常有限。在这里，我建议野生动物系统应该精通处理相关的社会权衡，因为这些社会中的社会联系同时充当传染病的途径，同时也依赖于有益的社会传播过程。因此，我将利用自然动物种群未被认识到的潜力来解决这些基本的知识差距。通过(i)综合数百项研究，非常详细地量化野生动物的社会网络，以及（ii）在这些现实世界系统中进行独特的实验（社会操纵）。通过这种方式，我将利用自然种群提供的独特机会，提供急需的经验见解，了解如何利用社交网络来优化现实世界环境中广泛的传染过程。通过继续与各领域的应用从业者进行跨学科合作，该奖学金还将探索三个具有更广泛影响的领域，特别侧重于(i)确定人类社会网络中的哪些社会干预措施可以最好地控制疾病（特别是covid - 19），同时造成最小的破坏；（二）如何在与保护有关的系统内以最佳方式推广新举措，以促进可持续行为；（三）社会行为如何促进心理健康，特别是在社会系统遭受破坏的情况下。最后，通过建立对社会行为和传染病的基本理解，该研究也将发展未来的研究方向，并构建一个概念框架，用于检查(a)多种类型的传染如何相互反馈（例如，疾病传播是否通过改变个人行为改变行为传染的机会？）和(b)传染过程如何在较长时间框架内运作（例如，传染如何影响个人的生存或繁殖？）行为的传播会影响几代人的文化演变吗？)。因此，这项研究将为现实世界的社会网络如何针对不同的传染进行优化提供新的科学理解，特别是在个人如何定位自己、不同社会联系类型的数量和程度以及人口社会网络的整体结构方面。这将产生新的基础科学认识，用于在一系列领域产生广泛的应用影响，并开辟新的进步领域。

In any society, the invisible web of diverse forms of social interactions that link individuals together can be conceptualised as their 'social network'. This network provides the pathways for socially-contagious elements to spread, which hold essential benefits (e.g. disseminating information) as well as great costs (e.g. infectious diseases). As such, 'social trade-offs' exist, whereby social connections deliver fundamentals that are essential to individuals lives and to societal functioning (e.g. new innovations, cooperative actions) but also provide transmission routes for harmful contagions (e.g. viruses).Many questions surround these trade-offs in contagions: Where can individuals position themselves within the network to reap the benefits most important to them while avoiding the risks? Which type of social bonds and relationships shape the different contagions at play? How should a society be structured to promote positive contagions while simultaneously controlling harmful transmission? Notably, the recent COVID19 pandemic clearly exampled this, with countries struggling to maintain societal functioning while controlling the contagion. Yet, the considerations here are actually general to any social system exposed to contagions, and this proposed research aims to provide new empirically-based insights into each of the aforementioned questions, as understanding currently remains critically limited.Here, I propose that wild animal systems are expected to be well-versed in coping with relevant social trade-offs, as social connections in these societies simultaneously act as pathways for infectious disease while also being relied upon for beneficial social transmission processes Therefore, I will capitalize on the unrecognized potential of natural animal populations for addressing these fundamental knowledge gaps, through (i) synthesising hundreds of studies quantifying wild animal social networks in great detail, and (ii) carrying out unique experiments (social manipulations) within these real-world systems. In this way, I will use the unique opportunities that natural populations offer to provide much-needed empirical insights into how social networks can be harnessed for optimising a broad range of contagion processes in real-world settings.Through continuing my interdisciplinary collaborations with applied practitioners across fields, this fellowship will also explore three areas of wider impact, specifically focusing on (i) identifying which social interventions within human social networks can best control diseases (particularly COVID19) while causing minimal disruption, (ii) how new initiatives can be optimally spread within conservation-relevant systems to promote sustainable behaviours and (iii) how social behaviour can contribute to mental health particularly when social systems suffer disruption.Finally, through building foundational comprehension of social behaviour and contagions, this fellowship will also develop of future lines of investigation, and construct a conceptual frameworks for examining (a) how multiple types of contagions feedback onto one another (e.g. does disease spread alter the opportunities for behavioural contagions through changing individuals' behaviours?) and (b) how contagion processes operate on longer-timeframes (e.g. how do contagions shape individuals' survival or reproduction? does the spread of behaviours shape the evolution of culture over generations?). As such, this research will provide new scientific understanding into how real-world social networks can be optimized for varied contagions, particularly in regards to how individuals position themselves, the quantity and extent of different social bonding types, and the overall architecture of the population's social network. This will produce new fundamental scientific understanding, be used for generating broad applied impact across a range of fields, and open up new areas of advancement.