In recent years, interest in non-meat diets has been growing at an exponential rate many countries. There is a wide consensus now that increased meat consumption linked to higher health risks and environmental impact. Yet humans are social animals. Even the very personal decision of whether eat or not influenced by others around them. Using data from British Social Attitude Survey, we develop a...

The mammalian nonapeptide hormones, vasopressin and oxytocin, are known to be potent regulators of social behaviour. Teleost fishes possess vasopressin and oxytocin homologues known as arginine vasotocin (AVT) and isotocin (IT), respectively. The role of these homologous nonapeptides in mediating social behaviour in fishes has received far less attention. The extraordinarily large number of tel...

Culture is increasingly being understood as a driver of mammalian phenotypes. Defined as group-specific behaviour transmitted by social learning, culture is shaped by social structure. However, culture can itself affect social structure if individuals preferentially interact with others whose behaviour is similar, or cultural symbols are used to mark groups. Using network formalism, this interp...

Criminal behaviour often involves a combination of physical, mental, social and environmental (multi-)agent aspects, such as neurological deviations, hormones, arousal, (non)empathy, targets and social control. To study the dynamics of these aspects, this paper contributes a dynamical agent-based approach for analysis and simulation of criminal behaviour. It involves dynamically generated desir...

Despite growing interest in animal social networks, surprisingly little is known about whether individuals are consistent in their social network characteristics. Networks are rarely repeatedly sampled; yet an assumption of individual consistency in social behaviour is often made when drawing conclusions about the consequences of social processes and structure. A characterization of such social...

Many animal species live in social groups and show complex social behaviour. Social behaviour has been well studied on various levels, ranging from classical ethological approaches, i.e. behavioural observations, to experimental and evolutionary approaches focussing on the fitness value of group living. Yet while research on smaller groups has provided important insights into behavioural mechan...