Which types of social relationships matter? Affiliative bonds and mortality risk in wild primates.

In humans, having stronger, more numerous, or more supportive social relationships predicts mortality risk from almost every cause of death—a pattern that cuts across cultural, geographic, gender, and socioeconomic lines. Recent studies from a wide range of wild mammals show startling converge with the human literature: more socially connected individuals typically experience improved health and reduced mortality risk throughout adulthood. Yet clear explanations for such patterns in animals remain elusive, and empirical studies often find disparate aspects of social relationships to be most predictive of survival, even within single populations. I will discuss my work on understanding these links, focusing on adult survival in nonhuman primates, and drawing on data from long-term field research on wild baboons and capuchins. I will also discuss patterns of age-related variation in different aspects of affiliative social relationships throughout the natural aging process in primates.