Network Scaling Reveals Consistent Fractal Pattern In Hierarchical Mammalian Societies

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Genetics
Article Date: 04 Sep 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Humans live in societies consisting of a number of levels, from core social groups of 3-5 close relatives termed support cliques to larger, looser aggregations such as tribes that contain over 1000 individuals.

Recent research has shown that these networks have a consistent structure; each subsequent level of the networks is 3-4 times the size of the preceding smaller grouping level.

Here we show that these rules hold for other mammals (primates, elephant, orca) suggesting scaling ratios of close to three may be fundamental to mammalian social organisation and have a deep-seated evolutionary history.

Royal Society journal Biology Letters

Biology Letters publishes short, innovative and cutting-edge research articles and opinion pieces accessible to scientists from across the biological sciences. The journal is characterised by stringent peer-review, rapid publication and broad dissemination of succinct high-quality research communications.

Biology Letters