How can social network analysis contribute to social behavior research in applied ethology?

Abstract

Social network analysis is increasingly used by behavioral ecologists and primatologists to describe the patterns and quality of interactions among individuals. We provide an overview of this methodology, with examples illustrating how it can be used to study social behavior in applied contexts. Like most kinds of social interaction analyses, social network analysis provides information about direct relationships (e.g. dominant–subordinate relationships). However, it also generates a more global model of social organization that determines how individual patterns of social interaction relate to individual and group characteristics. A particular strength of this approach is that it provides standardized mathematical methods for calculating metrics of sociality across levels of social organization, from the population and group levels to the individual level. At the group level these metrics can be used to track changes in social network structures over time, evaluate the effect of the environment on social network structure, or compare social structures across groups, populations or species. At the individual level, the metrics allow quantification of the heterogeneity of social experience within groups and identification of individuals who may play especially important roles in maintaining social stability or information flow throughout the network.

Social interactions elicit rapid shifts in functional connectivity in the social decision-making network of zebrafish

“…centrality and cohesion) to characterize the SDM networks underlying each social behaviour state. Eigenvector centrality, which takes into account the number of direct connections that a node has and how well connected its relations are, was used as a measure of centrality; density, the proportion of all possible connections that are present in the network, was used as a measure of cohesion [35]. In order to compare the density of connections among behavioural states (differences in the mean strengths of the relation between two nuclei), we used a bootstrap t-test approach with 5000 sub-samples.…”

Empleo de redes sociales para el análisis de las relaciones entre dominancia y leucocitospermia en carneros con estrés experimental

“…La relación que guardan las constantes fisiológicas dependientes de una etológica independiente, se pueden representar dentro de un grupo en forma de redes, siendo uno de los objetivos principales evidenciar de forma gráfica los patrones generados por un grupo, así como las relaciones entre los integrantes o su posición en el conjunto (Freeman 2012;Makagon 2012).…”

“…En análisis de la información que proporcionan las redes sociales, permite conocer relaciones directas, es decir entre individuos o factores que modifican a un solo individuo, pero también pueden generar información de un modelo global, en donde las interacciones de un grupo, comportamiento, e incluso bienestar, pueden tener repercusiones sobre la población de una región, país o mundial (Makagon et al 2012).…”

“…El análisis de redes sociales se ha empleado en ciencias biológicas de forma creciente por biólogos del comportamiento y primatólogos, para describir patrones y cualidades de las interacciones entre los individuos de un grupo (Makagon et al 2012).…”

Social dynamics, network structure, and information diffusion in fish shoals.

“…It might even be possible to predict future spread of information through a population if given sufficient information on the effects of relevant factors on social transmission rates. This could have ramifications for management of wild and captive populations, such as seeding beneficial information or training to the individuals most likely to facilitate its rapid spread (Makagon et al, 2012).…”