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Cooperation And Competition In Paper Wasp And Human Societies

dc.contributor.authorBarker, Jessicaen_US
dc.contributor.chairReeve, Hudson Kernen_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberSherman, Paul Willarden_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberSeeley, Thomas Dyeren_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberShaw, Kerry Len_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-01-31T19:44:04Z
dc.date.available2017-12-20T07:00:30Z
dc.date.issued2012-08-20en_US
dc.description.abstractIn this dissertation, I combine theoretical and empirical approaches, as well as concepts from the human and non-human animal literature, to investigate the effect of different types of competition on cooperation among members of a social group. These lines of research are complementary and mutually reinforcing: drawing on approaches developed to analyze the behavior of one taxon to investigate another can help us elucidate universal principles governing the evolution of cooperation and conflict over resource division. In chapters 1 and 2, I apply game theoretic "tug-of-war" models of reproductive skew to conflict over resource contribution and division within human groups. In chapter 1, I consider competition over individuals' personal resources. The results of a laboratory economic game support the theoretical prediction that the potential for such competition favors cooperative contribution to an equally shared group resource from which everyone benefits. In chapter 2, I relax the assumption of equal sharing, and demonstrate theoretically and empirically that competition over resource division leads to lower contributions and payoffs. In chapters 3 and 4, I extend a tug-of-war model of intergroup competition to investigate conflict over resources shared among social insect colonies. I focus on the primitively eusocial wasp Polistes dominulus, as individuals display behavioral flexibility and benefit from investing in both cooperation and conflict. In chapter 3, I use field and lab experiments test theoretical predictions that P. dominulus may not face a simple tradeoff between within-group cooperation and competition. In chapter 4, I demonstrate mathematically that asymmetries among group members in relatedness and dominance affect cooperation and conflict within insect societies engaged in intergroup competition. In chapter 5, I consider competition over foraging contributions in P. dominulus, and show in a field manipulation that aggression towards experimentally removed workers is higher when these wasps received food while they were in the lab. This leads to questions about the possible function of aggression in within-group competition and cooperation in this species.en_US
dc.identifier.otherbibid: 7959774
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/31050
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.subjectCooperationen_US
dc.subjectCompetitionen_US
dc.subjectEvolution of socialityen_US
dc.titleCooperation And Competition In Paper Wasp And Human Societiesen_US
dc.typedissertation or thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineNeurobiology
thesis.degree.grantorCornell Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy
thesis.degree.namePh. D., Neurobiology

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