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Social facilitation in animals is when the performance of a behaviour by an animal increases the probability of other animals also engaging in that behaviour or increasing the intensity of the behaviour. More technically, it is said to occur when the performance of an instinctive pattern of behaviour by an individual acts as a releaser for the same behaviour in others, and so initiates the same line of action in the whole group.Wheeler, L., (1966). Toward a theory of behavioral contagion. Psychological Review, 73: 179-192. It has been phrased as "The energizing of dominant behaviors by the presence of others."
Social facilitation occurs in a wide variety of species under a range of circumstances. These include feeding, scavenging,Jackson, A.L., Ruxton, G.D. and Houston, D.C. (2008). The effect of social facilitation on foraging success in vultures: a modelling study. Biology Letters, 4: 311–313. teaching, sexual behaviour, coalition formation, group displays, flocking behaviour, and dustbathing. For example, in paper wasp species, ''
Social facilitation in animals is when the performance of a behaviour by an animal increases the probability of other animals also engaging in that behaviour or increasing the intensity of the behaviour. More technically, it is said to occur when the performance of an instinctive pattern of behaviour by an individual acts as a releaser for the same behaviour in others, and so initiates the same line of action in the whole group.Wheeler, L., (1966). Toward a theory of behavioral contagion. Psychological Review, 73: 179-192. It has been phrased as "The energizing of dominant behaviors by the presence of others."
Social facilitation occurs in a wide variety of species under a range of circumstances. These include feeding, scavenging,Jackson, A.L., Ruxton, G.D. and Houston, D.C. (2008). The effect of social facilitation on foraging success in vultures: a modelling study. Biology Letters, 4: 311–313. teaching, sexual behaviour, coalition formation, group displays, flocking behaviour, and dustbathing. For example, in paper wasp species, ''Agelaia pallipes
''Agelaia pallipes'' is a species of social paper wasp found from Costa Rica to Argentina and Paraguay. ''A. pallipes'' is ground-nesting and is one of the most aggressive wasps in South America. This species is a predator of other insects, inclu ...
'', social facilitation is used to recruitment to food resources. By using chemical communication, ''A. pallipes ''pool the independent search efforts to locate and defend food sources from other organisms.
Social facilitation is sometimes used to develop successful social scavenging strategies. Griffon vulture
The Eurasian griffon vulture (''Gyps fulvus'') is a large Old World vulture in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. It may also be known as the Griffon vulture, though it may be used for the genus as a whole. It is not to be confused with Rü ...
s are highly specialized scavengers that rely on finding carcasses. When foraging, griffon vultures soar at up to 800 m above the ground. Although some fresh carcasses are located directly by searching birds, the majority of individuals find food by following other vultures, i.e. social facilitation. A chain reaction of information transfer extends from the carcass as descending birds are followed by other birds, which themselves cannot directly see the carcass, ultimately drawing birds from an extensive area over a short period of time.
Moller used a play-back technique to investigate the effects of singing by the black wheatear
The black wheatear (''Oenanthe leucura'') is a wheatear, a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher of the Muscicapidae.
This ...
(''Oenanthe leucura'') on the behaviour of both conspecifics
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...
and heterospecifics. It was found that singing increased in both groups in response to the wheateater and Moller suggested the conspicuous dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's hori ...
(and dusk) chorus of bird song may be augmented by social facilitation due to the singing of conspecifics as well as heterospecifics.Moller, A.P., (1992). Interspecific response to playback of bird song. Ethology, 90: 315-320.
See also
*Behavioral contagion
Behavioral contagion is a form of social contagion involving the spread of behavior through a group. It refers to the propensity for a person to copy a certain behavior of others who are either in the vicinity, or whom they have been exposed to. Th ...
*Social facilitation
Social facilitation is a social phenomenon in which being in the presence of others improves individual task performance. That is, people do better on tasks when they are with other people rather than when they are doing the task alone. Situation ...
References
{{Ethology Ethology Animal communication