IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0010605.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Ravens Show Consolation? Responses to Distressed Others

Author

Listed:
  • Orlaith N Fraser
  • Thomas Bugnyar

Abstract

Background: Bystander affiliation (post-conflict affiliation from an uninvolved bystander to the conflict victim) may represent an expression of empathy in which the bystander consoles the victim to alleviate the victim's distress (“consolation”). However, alternative hypotheses for the function of bystander affiliation also exist. Determining whether ravens spontaneously offer consolation to distressed partners may not only help us to understand how animals deal with the costs of aggressive conflict, but may also play an important role in the empathy debate. Methodology/Principal findings: This study investigates the post-conflict behavior of ravens, applying the predictive framework for the function of bystander affiliation for the first time in a non-ape species. We found weak evidence for reconciliation (post-conflict affiliation between former opponents), but strong evidence for both bystander affiliation and solicited bystander affiliation (post-conflict affiliation from the victim to a bystander). Bystanders involved in both interactions were likely to share a valuable relationship with the victim. Bystander affiliation offered to the victim was more likely to occur after intense conflicts. Renewed aggression was less likely to occur after the victim solicited affiliation from a bystander. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings suggest that in ravens, bystanders may console victims with whom they share a valuable relationship, thus alleviating the victims' post-conflict distress. Conversely victims may affiliate with bystanders after a conflict in order to reduce the likelihood of renewed aggression. These results stress the importance of relationship quality in determining the occurrence and function of post-conflict interactions, and show that ravens may be sensitive to the emotions of others.

Suggested Citation

  • Orlaith N Fraser & Thomas Bugnyar, 2010. "Do Ravens Show Consolation? Responses to Distressed Others," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(5), pages 1-8, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0010605
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0010605
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0010605&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0010605?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joan B. Silk & Sarah F. Brosnan & Jennifer Vonk & Joseph Henrich & Daniel J. Povinelli & Amanda S. Richardson & Susan P. Lambeth & Jenny Mascaro & Steven J. Schapiro, 2005. "Chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of unrelated group members," Nature, Nature, vol. 437(7063), pages 1357-1359, October.
    2. Sasha R X Dall & Jonathan Wright, 2009. "Rich Pickings Near Large Communal Roosts Favor ‘Gang’ Foraging by Juvenile Common Ravens, Corvus corax," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(2), pages 1-7, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriele Schino & Claudia Marini, 2012. "Self-Protective Function of Post-Conflict Bystander Affiliation in Mandrills," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-6, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brosnan, Sarah F., 2011. "An evolutionary perspective on morality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 23-30, January.
    2. Brosnan, Sarah F. & Price, Sara A. & Leverett, Kelly & Prétôt, Laurent & Beran, Michael & Wilson, Bart J., 2017. "Human and monkey responses in a symmetric game of conflict with asymmetric equilibria," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 293-306.
    3. DeAngelo, Gregory & Brosnan, Sarah F., 2013. "The importance of risk tolerance and knowledge when considering the evolution of inequity responses across the primates," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(S), pages 105-112.
    4. van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M. & Gowdy, John M., 2009. "A group selection perspective on economic behavior, institutions and organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Tremblay, Ethan & Hupper, Afton & Waring, Timothy, 2019. "Cooperatives exhibit greater cooperation than comparable businesses: experimental evidence," SocArXiv 6x9p3, Center for Open Science.
    6. Jorg J M Massen & Lisette M van den Berg & Berry M Spruijt & Elisabeth H M Sterck, 2010. "Generous Leaders and Selfish Underdogs: Pro-Sociality in Despotic Macaques," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(3), pages 1-5, March.
    7. Nicolas Baumard, 2011. "Punishment is not a group adaptation," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, June.
    8. Chris Knight, 2008. "Language co-evolved with the rule of law," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 7(1), pages 109-128, June.
    9. Judith Maria Burkart & Katja Rueth, 2013. "Preschool Children Fail Primate Prosocial Game Because of Attentional Task Demands," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(7), pages 1-11, July.
    10. Julian C Evans & Colin J Torney & Stephen C Votier & Sasha R X Dall, 2019. "Social information use and collective foraging in a pursuit diving seabird," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, September.
    11. Terence Burnham, 2015. "Public goods with high-powered punishment: high cooperation and low efficiency," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 173-187, July.
    12. Gintis, Herbert, 2016. "Homo Ludens: Social rationality and political behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PB), pages 95-109.
    13. Shinya Yamamoto & Tatyana Humle & Masayuki Tanaka, 2009. "Chimpanzees Help Each Other upon Request," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(10), pages 1-7, October.
    14. Winter, Fabian & Rauhut, Heiko & Miller, Luis, 2018. "Dynamic Bargaining and Normative Conflict," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 112-126.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0010605. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.