Despotism promotes dyadic cooperation through enhanced interdependencies in non-human primate societies

Cooperation is the cornerstone of human societies, and its emergence is firmly linked to enhanced tolerance and egalitarianism. However, evidence of profuse cooperation in less tolerant and despotic societies challenges this predominant view. The overarching interdependency hypothesis may resolve the conundrum. It posits that group-level interdependencies, like strength in numbers in colonially nesting species or allomaternal care in cooperatively breeding species, promote indiscriminate cooperation through enhanced tolerance. Crucially, this hypothesis also predicts that dyadic interdependence like friendships, nepotistic biases, or coalitions, selectively enhance tolerance, fostering discriminate cooperation in despotic species. Species belonging to Macaca, which have a similar social organization, yet remarkable variation in tolerance, hierarchy steepness, nepotistic biases, and coalitionary tendencies, provide an opportunity for testing the interdependency hypothesis. In social group settings, we experimentally study cooperation, prosociality, and tolerance in six macaque species spanning a tolerance gradient. Our findings reveal high dyadic cooperation in despotic societies, yet this cooperation is restricted to a few partners. Dyadic prosociality, kinship, and tolerance positively predict cooperation. Further, our agent-based models demonstrate that despotic societies have fewer but more stable bonds and, thus, higher dyadic interdependencies than in egalitarian societies. Our results suggest that interdependencies facilitate the emergence and maintenance of cooperation.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-04-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71168-7
Primary Topic
Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Despotism promotes dyadic cooperation through enhanced interdependencies in non-human primate societies

Elena Belli, Charlotte E. Kluiver, Tonko W. Zijlstra, Jonas Verspeek et al.
Nature Communications
Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
article

Despotism promotes dyadic cooperation through enhanced interdependencies in non-human primate societies

Elena Belli, Charlotte E. Kluiver, Tonko W. Zijlstra, Jonas Verspeek, Jolanda A. de Jong, Eythan Cousin, Debottam Bhattacharjee, Paula Escriche Chova, Sophie Waasdorp, Esmee Middelburg, Tom S. Roth, Lena S. Pflüger, Aníta Rut Guðjónsdóttir, Elja J. Jeunink, Veera I. Schroderus, Adam N. Zeeman, Jorg J M Massen, Edwin J C van Leeuwen, Karline R L Janmaat, Sophie Calis, Edwin J A M de Laat, Eva S J van Dijk, Penny E N Kuijer, Elisabeth H M Sterck
article en

Abstract

Cooperation is the cornerstone of human societies, and its emergence is firmly linked to enhanced tolerance and egalitarianism. However, evidence of profuse cooperation in less tolerant and despotic societies challenges this predominant view. The overarching interdependency hypothesis may resolve the conundrum. It posits that group-level interdependencies, like strength in numbers in colonially nesting species or allomaternal care in cooperatively breeding species, promote indiscriminate cooperation through enhanced tolerance. Crucially, this hypothesis also predicts that dyadic interdependence like friendships, nepotistic biases, or coalitions, selectively enhance tolerance, fostering discriminate cooperation in despotic species. Species belonging to Macaca, which have a similar social organization, yet remarkable variation in tolerance, hierarchy steepness, nepotistic biases, and coalitionary tendencies, provide an opportunity for testing the interdependency hypothesis. In social group settings, we experimentally study cooperation, prosociality, and tolerance in six macaque species spanning a tolerance gradient. Our findings reveal high dyadic cooperation in despotic societies, yet this cooperation is restricted to a few partners. Dyadic prosociality, kinship, and tolerance positively predict cooperation. Further, our agent-based models demonstrate that despotic societies have fewer but more stable bonds and, thus, higher dyadic interdependencies than in egalitarian societies. Our results suggest that interdependencies facilitate the emergence and maintenance of cooperation.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 17(1)
Linköping University (SE), Leiden University (NL), University of Vienna (AT), University of Antwerp (BE), University of Turku (FI), Turku University of Applied Sciences (FI), City University of Hong Kong (HK), Utrecht University (NL), Biomedical Primate Research Centre (NL), Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp (BE), Hong Kong Jockey Club (HK), Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE), Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (ES), Amsterdam Museum (NL), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (NL), Université de Strasbourg (FR), University of Amsterdam (NL), Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (NL), Wageningen University & Research (NL), University of Jyväskylä (FI)
European Commission, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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