Sociality and health: impacts of sociality on disease susceptibility and transmission in animal and human societies

@article{Kappeler2015SocialityAH,
  title={Sociality and health: impacts of sociality on disease susceptibility and transmission in animal and human societies},
  author={Peter M. Kappeler and Sylvia Cremer and Charles L. Nunn},
  journal={Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences},
  year={2015},
  volume={370}
}
This paper introduces a theme issue presenting the latest developments in research on the impacts of sociality on health and fitness. The articles that follow cover research on societies ranging from insects to humans. Variation in measures of fitness (i.e. survival and reproduction) has been linked to various aspects of sociality in humans and animals alike, and variability in individual health and condition has been recognized as a key mediator of these relationships. Viewed from a broad… 
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The sociality–health–fitness nexus: synthesis, conclusions and future directions
TLDR
This concluding chapter synthesizes the results of diverse studies into some of the key concepts discussed in this issue, focusing on risks of infectious disease through social contact, the effects of competition in groups on susceptibility to disease, and the integration of sociality into research on life-history trade-offs.
How disease constrains the evolution of social systems
TLDR
This study provides evidence for an often-stated (but rarely supported) claim that pathogens have been the dominant force shaping the complexity of division of labour in eusocial societies of honeybees and termites and establishes a general theoretical approach for assessing evolutionary constraints on social organization from disease risk in other collaborative taxa.
Respiratory Disease Risk of Zoo-Housed Bonobos Is Associated with Sex and Betweenness Centrality in the Proximity Network
TLDR
It was found that individuals that were more central in the social network had higher chances of contracting respiratory disease and that males were more likely to get infected than females, and two factors that can be taken into account when managing fission-fusion dynamics during disease outbreaks in this zoo-housed species are highlighted.
Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?
TLDR
The need for reliable transcriptomic markers of ageing and a comprehensive ageing theory of social animals, which includes the reproductive potential of workers, are highlighted and the fact that social insect queens reach maturity only after a prolonged period of producing non-reproductive workers is considered.
Social ageing: exploring the drivers of late-life changes in social behaviour in mammals
Social interactions help group-living organisms cope with socio-environmental challenges and are central to survival and reproductive success. Recent research has shown that social behaviour and…
Strong social relationships are associated with decreased longevity in a facultatively social mammal
TLDR
It is concluded that sociality plays an important role in longevity, but how it does so may depend on whether a species is obligately or facultatively social.
Primate reinfection with gastrointestinal parasites: behavioural and physiological predictors of parasite acquisition
Disease implications of animal social network structure: a synthesis across social systems
TLDR
This study uses statistical models to review the social network organization of 47 species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects, and finds that relatively solitary species have large variation in number of social partners, socially hierarchical species are the least clustered in their interactions, and that social networks of gregarious species tend to be the most fragmented.
Disease implications of animal social network structure: A synthesis across social systems.
TLDR
This study uses statistical models to review the social network organization of 47 species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects, and finds that relatively solitary species have large variation in number of social partners, socially hierarchical species are the least clustered in their interactions, and that social networks of gregarious species tend to be the most fragmented.
Sociability as a personality trait in animals: methods, causes and consequences
TLDR
It is highlighted that direct evidence for more sociable individuals being safer from predators is lacking, and the need for greater integration of these approaches into future animal personality research to address the imbalance in the understanding of sociability as a personality trait.
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This concluding chapter synthesizes the results of diverse studies into some of the key concepts discussed in this issue, focusing on risks of infectious disease through social contact, the effects of competition in groups on susceptibility to disease, and the integration of sociality into research on life-history trade-offs.
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