Deck 13: Social Behavior and Sociality

Question 1

Refer to the figure.
The point of the prisoner's dilemma diagram is to

A) illustrate the adaptive value of cooperation between two individuals.
B) show that under most circumstances, reciprocity would probably be selected against.
C) predict that altruism rather than reciprocity explains why animals cooperate.
D) show why reciprocity is so common and widespread in the animal kingdom.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Kin selection theory is most useful in helping explain

A) cooperative hunting by the members of a lion pride.
B) reciprocity that occurs by hunting in groups of lions.
C) altruism exhibited by some hunting lions in a group.
D) the exploitation of some helpful lions by others in their pride.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The prisoner's dilemma describes

A) the decision faced by aphids taken captive by slave-making ants over whether to escape or to cooperate with the ants.
B) a model of decisions regarding defection or cooperation with another individual.
C) reproductive decisions faced by animals at the edge of their species' range regarding whether to hybridize with another species or continue searching for a member of their own.
D) "buyer's remorse" by a member of a mated pair, wishing to choose a different mate but facing the high costs of searching.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Honeyguides (a small African bird) lead humans to bees' nests so the humans will make the wax honeycomb available to them. Similarly, cleaner fish remove ectoparasites from other reef fish. These are examples of

A) selfishness.
B) kin selection.
C) reciprocity.
D) altruism.

Question 5

Vampire bats need to eat often, and their only food is blood. When one bat is unsuccessful at gaining a meal, it returns to a communal roost where another, often unrelated, bat is likely to give it a small amount of food. Work by Carter and Wilkinson (2015) suggests that this arrangement meets the conditions needed for

A) selfishness.
B) kin selection.
C) reciprocity.
D) altruism.

Question 6

The fungus Ophiocordyceps manipulates the behavior of worker ants by infecting them with fungal spores, causing them to descend to the understory where conditions for fungal development are optimal, but the ants die. This is an example of

A) selfishness.
B) kin selection.
C) reciprocity.
D) altruism.

Question 7

Behavioral syndromes are

A) personality defects that lead to lower fitness.
B) ecological constraints that may promote helping behavior.
C) maladaptive social behaviors.
D) behaviors that are consistent across contexts.

Question 8

In reciprocity, we hypothesize that an individual engages in a selfless act because they will be "repaid" by the recipient in the future. This expectation is likely to occur in all of the following scenarios, except:

A) when individuals are long-lived and the likelihood of meeting again is high.
B) when an individual has observed a potential recipient helping others.
C) when the individuals are different species and can distinguish their payoff from the arrangement.
D) when the recipient can cheat and avoid repaying the altruistic act.

Question 9

Refer to the figure.
Primary helpers are less likely to survive and reproduce the following year than secondary helpers. Based on the results shown here, we can predict that primary helpers are

A) related to the breeders and gain direct benefits through their helping effort.
B) unrelated to the breeders and gain direct benefits through their helping effort.
C) related to the breeders and gain indirect benefits through their helping effort.
D) unrelated to the breeders and gain indirect benefits through their helping effort.

Question 10

Refer to the figure.
Primary helpers are less likely to survive and reproduce the following year than secondary helpers. Based on the results shown here, we can predict that secondary helpers are

A) related to the breeders and gain direct benefits through their helping effort.
B) unrelated to the breeders and gain direct benefits through their helping effort.
C) related to the breeders and gain indirect benefits through their helping effort.
D) unrelated to the breeders and gain indirect benefits through their helping effort.

Question 11

Refer to the figure.
Due to conservation efforts, this population of Seychelles warblers increased from 1959 to 1990. How does the relationship between the number of birds and number of territories change over this period?

A) The number of birds and number of territories increase at the same steady rate as one another over time.
B) The number of birds and number of territories increase together at first, but the number of birds then begins to greatly outnumber the number of territories.
C) The number of birds consistently outnumbers the number of territories throughout the period, but at different amounts in different years.
D) The number of birds increases steadily throughout the period, while the number of territories oscillates.

Question 12

Refer to the figure.
Due to conservation efforts, this population of Seychelles warblers increased from 1959 to 1990. Following the ecological constraints hypothesis, in what year would you predict that helping behavior began to occur in this population?

A) 1960
B) 1967
C) 1973
D) 1985

Question 13

Refer to the figure.
Based on these results from a study on 267 species of birds, we can conclude that

A) cooperatively breeding species have lower kin structure.
B) there is no relationship between mating system and breeding system.
C) cooperative breeding is more likely to evolve in polyandrous species.
D) cooperative breeding in birds is linked to monogamy.

Question 14

Refer to the figure.
Horizontal bars represent the maximum life spans of three successive generations in each species. The blue shaded areas are the mean reproductive spans. These results indicate that compared to other primates, humans

A) start reproducing at a similar age.
B) have longer postreproductive survival.
C) reproduce for a longer portion of their lives.
D) overlap more in reproductive span between each generation.

Question 15

Refer to the figure.
Horizontal bars represent the maximum life spans of three successive generations in each species. The blue shaded areas are the mean reproductive spans. What hypothesis do these results support?

A) The life-history hypothesis.
B) The pay-to-stay hypothesis.
C) The kin selection hypothesis.
D) The grandmother hypothesis.

Question 16

Why do lions hunt together? In your answer, indicate the fitness payoffs for individuals of the group conferred by the behavior of mutual benefit.

Question 17

Why do lions hunt together? In your answer, indicate the fitness payoffs for individuals of the group conferred by the behavior of reciprocity.

Question 18

Why do lions hunt together? In your answer, indicate the fitness payoffs for individuals of the group conferred by the behavior of (nonreciprocal) altruism.

Question 19

Why do lions hunt together? In your answer, indicate the fitness payoffs for individuals of the group conferred by the behavior of selfishness.

Question 20

There are many costs and benefits to cooperative breeding. Select two of the proposed hypotheses and explain how they apply to cooperative breeding: kin selection hypothesis, group augmentation hypothesis, ecological constraints hypothesis, life history hypothesis, benefits-of-philopatry hypothesis, temporal variability hypothesis.

Question 21

Refer to the figure.
The female white-fronted bee-eater has several options to choose among when deciding to reproduce. What factors affect whether the female stays in her natal territory?

Question 22

Refer to the figure.
Based on the data in the figure, describe why female Polistes wasps are more likely to be helpers to a foundress rather than establish their own nest as a solitary foundress. What type of social interaction does this helping behavior illustrate, and why?

Question 23

Describe the relationship between the grandmother hypothesis and reproductive senescence, and provide an example of a species that illustrates this hypothesis.