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8 - Understanding the Trade-off between Cooperation and Conflict in Avian Societies

from Part III - Species Comparisons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2021

By
Amanda R. Ridley  and
Martha J. Nelson-Flower
Edited by
Walter Wilczynski  and
Sarah F. Brosnan
Walter Wilczynski
Affiliation:
Georgia State University
Sarah F. Brosnan
Affiliation:
Georgia State University
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Summary

The evolutionary paradox of animals helping others in their social group, rather than living independently, has fascinated researchers for many decades. Ultimately, this cooperation is hypothesized to have evolved because the benefits of cooperation outweigh the costs (Hamilton, 1964), and considerable empirical evidence supports this hypothesis (see Koenig and Dickinson, 2016). However, one major cost of cooperation, particularly for territorial cooperative breeders, is conflict (Shen et al., 2017; Nelson-Flower et al., 2018a). This conflict may occur both within and between groups; such conflict includes access to reproductive opportunities, social status, territory, water, or food. We suggest that a consideration of the influence of both intergroup and intragroup levels of conflict in individual decisions to cooperate is essential, since intragroup conflict may lead to decisions to disperse if intergroup opportunities to mate are high, whereas high levels of intergroup conflict may promote intragroup cooperation in order to defend existing resources (see Chapter 10 for review of inter- vs. intragroup aggression in social insects). Conflict is therefore a natural outcome of cooperation, and the level of conflict may define the point at which cooperation is no longer a beneficial strategy for individuals. This possibility, that conflict at both inter- and intragroup levels define the stability of cooperation over time, remains relatively under-explored despite its potential importance in understanding the evolution of cooperation.

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Chapter
Information
Cooperation and Conflict
The Interaction of Opposites in Shaping Social Behavior
 , pp. 167 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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