Monkeys' Social Networks Determine Spread of Information, Study Finds

A new study on squirrel monkeys suggests that those with the strongest social networks are able to catch on to new ideas faster than their less-well-connected peers.

"Our study shows that innovations do not just spread randomly in primate groups but, as in humans, are shaped by the monkeys' social networks," said Andrew Whiten, who led the research at University of St. Andrews.

Whiten and his colleagues combined traditional social learning experiments with social network analysis, and by merging the two disciplines created what is said to be the first demonstration of how social networks may influence the spread of new cultural techniques.

The researchers determined the monkeys' social networks by recording which monkeys spent time together when in the vicinity of an "artificial fruit" device that could be manipulated to extract a food reward. The researchers tracked which monkeys spent time with each other and used the data to construct a social web that placed some individual monkeys as "nodes" or data points from which other monkeys gathered new information. Monkeys with the most connections to other well-connected monkeys were considered to have the highest "centrality" or social status within the network.

Monkeys could manipulate the artificial fruit devices either by opening a hatch or pivoting the device from side to side. Researchers trained the alpha male in one group of monkeys to open the hatch, and the alpha in another was trained to manipulate the artificial fruit with the pivot method. The trained monkeys were then sent back to their groups and watched to see how the information would be disseminated among the other monkeys it the troop.

 Monkeys more central to the group with the most social ties picked up on the new information faster than monkeys that were considered the social outliers.

The researchers hope to extend their study to focus on squirrel monkeys in different contexts such as foraging, moving and resting - and how those contexts might influence the spread of innovation.

Whiten and his colleagues' work is published in the journal Current Biology.

A video of the monkeys in action can be seen here.