Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27540368›Full record

ReviewFrontiers in psychology2016

Social Information Transmission in Animals: Lessons from Studies of Diffusion.

Julie Duboscq, Valéria Romano, Andrew MacIntosh, Cédric Sueur

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
26citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

26 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. The growing methodological toolkit for identifying and studying social learning and culture in non-human animals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. The ecology of ageing in wild societies: linking age structure and social behaviour.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Cooperation and deception through stigmergic interactions in human groups.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Collective knowledge and the dynamics of culture in chimpanzees.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Article
  13. Reconstructing social networks of Late Glacial and Holocene hunter-gatherers to understand cultural evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Animal Personality and Conservation: Basics for Inspiring New Research.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021
    Review
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Julie DuboscqDépartement Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueStrasbourg, France; Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Université de StrasbourgStrasbourg, France; Wildlife Research Centre, Kyoto UniversityKyoto, Japan.
Valéria RomanoDépartement Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueStrasbourg, France; Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Université de StrasbourgStrasbourg, France.
Andrew MacIntoshWildlife Research Centre, Kyoto UniversityKyoto, Japan; Primate Research Institute, Kyoto UniversityInuyama, Japan.
Cédric SueurDépartement Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueStrasbourg, France; Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Université de StrasbourgStrasbourg, France.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The capacity to use information provided by others to guide behavior is a widespread phenomenon in animal societies. A standard paradigm to test if and/or how animals use and transfer social information is through social diffusion experiments, by which researchers observe how information spreads within a group, sometimes by seeding new behavior in the population. In this article, we review the context, methodology and products of such social diffusion experiments. Our major focus is the transmission of information from an individual (or group thereof) to another, and the factors that can enhance or, more interestingly, inhibit it. We therefore also discuss reasons why social transmission sometimes does not occur despite being expected to. We span a full range of mechanisms and processes, from the nature of social information itself and the cognitive abilities of various species, to the idea of social competency and the constraints imposed by the social networks in which animals are embedded. We ultimately aim at a broad reflection on practical and theoretical issues arising when studying how social information spreads within animal groups.

Indexed as

experimental designinformationsocial cognitionsocial competencysocialitysocial network

Identifiers

PMID27540368
PMCPMC4973104

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.