TY - CONF

T1 - Priming effect and pre-exposure aggression in Siamese fighting fish

AU - Bertucci, Frédéric

AU - Matos, Ricardo Jorge Santa Clara

AU - Dabelsteen, Torben

N1 - Sider: 217

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Interactions and communication between individuals occur in a complex social environment in which senders and receivers are able to adjust their behaviour according to the context. Watching fights between others acts on a bystander’s motivation to engage in a fight and may make it behave more aggressively during subsequent disputes. This phenomenon is known as aggressive priming. The aim of our study was to investigate if this priming response follows a step function, i.e. appears only above a threshold level of aggression witnessed by a bystander. We found that bystanders behaved more aggressively in subsequent interactions when pre-exposed to an aggressive conspecific that was engaged in a fight whatever the level of aggression this fight reached. However, bystanders’ behaviour after pre-exposure was not correlated to the previously witnessed level of aggressiveness. These results suggest that individuals alter their behaviour in an aggressive social environment and indicate that priming effect follows a step function where aggression is triggered by an aggressive context. We discuss our results and the effect of pre-exposure on agonistic interactions in a communication network perspective.

AB - Interactions and communication between individuals occur in a complex social environment in which senders and receivers are able to adjust their behaviour according to the context. Watching fights between others acts on a bystander’s motivation to engage in a fight and may make it behave more aggressively during subsequent disputes. This phenomenon is known as aggressive priming. The aim of our study was to investigate if this priming response follows a step function, i.e. appears only above a threshold level of aggression witnessed by a bystander. We found that bystanders behaved more aggressively in subsequent interactions when pre-exposed to an aggressive conspecific that was engaged in a fight whatever the level of aggression this fight reached. However, bystanders’ behaviour after pre-exposure was not correlated to the previously witnessed level of aggressiveness. These results suggest that individuals alter their behaviour in an aggressive social environment and indicate that priming effect follows a step function where aggression is triggered by an aggressive context. We discuss our results and the effect of pre-exposure on agonistic interactions in a communication network perspective.

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 18 July 2008 through 20 July 2008

ER -