The Evolution of Friendship: A comparative evaluation across primates

Location: Streatham Campus, University of Exeter, EX4 4QJ

Academic Supervisors:
Dr. Lauren Brent (University of Exeter)
Dr Oliver Schulke (German Primate Centre, Gottingen)
Prof. Julia Ostner (German Primate Centre, Gottingen)

Project Description:
Friendly relationships are pervasive in the lives of humans and many other animals. These social connections may even be critical to our health and survival. Yet scientists have only just begun to ask why friendship evolved and to establish the selective forces that shaped these relationships. Macaques are arguably the best understood group-living genus of primates with known between species variation in the expression of social behaviours, demographic features and mating systems. The macaques thus provide an unprecedented opportunity to explore the evolution of friendship. This project will create a unique social dataset spanning >12 species of macaque. Data will be acquired via a consortium of macaque biologists in which the primary and additional supervisors are active members. Using social network analysis, different macaque species will be divided into those with strongly differentiated social bonds versus those with weaker bonds. Comparative evolutionary models will then be used to pinpoint the characteristics most commonly associated with each type of macaque. This study promises to uncover previously unknown information on the features associated with strong social bonds and to thus signpost the selective forces that have led to the evolution of friendship.

This project is well suited to students interested in animal behaviour, social evolution, evolutionary psychology/anthropology/biology, cooperation, and comparative approaches. Strong candidates will be those with experience of (or a desire to learn) data manipulation and social network analysis. There are no planned field or laboratory components to this project and thus it is widely accessible and of negligible expense.

This self-funded PhD in Psychology is a 3 year project and will use previously collected data from numerous species of macaque that will be shared as part of an on-going collaborative consortium. The project thus has negligible research costs associated with it and is ideal for self-funded students.

For more information about the project and informal enquiries, please contact the primary supervisor, Dr. Lauren Brent http://psychology.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Lauren_Brent


Entry requirements:
You should have or expect to achieve at least a 2:1 Honours degree from a UK university, or equivalent, in psychology, anthropology, biosciences or zoology. Experience in computer science and/or statistics is desirable.
If English is not your first language you will need to meet the English language requirements and provide proof of proficiency.