Stressful Social Networking -> Early Death?
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/egalitarian-hyraxes/#more-70342
Researchers have made a couple of interesting observations about the social interactions and networking of rock hyraxes, a small herbivorous mammal that lives in Africa and the Middle East. What they have essentially discovered is that having a larger social network leads to better health and longer life for these animals, but only if the network operates in an egalitarian manner (i.e. the social ties are spread more evenly).
What might be most intriguing about this is that the longer lifespans cannot be attributed to general connectedness; even highly connected hyraxes tended to die sooner when living in less-egalitarian groups. Reasons for early death did not seem to include being cut off from resources that might have been available in a larger group, or remaining unaware of approaching predators. Rather, the scientists believe that the reason for the difference is stress – hyraxes are less stressed when they are part of a more egalitarian network, and more so when individuals in their network attempt to control the group.
This implies that the overall configuration of social relationships within the group is the most important factor in hyrax lifespans and ties into what we have learned about positive and negative relations. In evaluating this configuration, we can assume that strong-willed individuals actually create negative relationships between themselves and others around them because of their role in perpetuating stress and their desire to lead.
Take this hypothetical network, for example, and assume that the hyraxes A and D are strong-willed animals. As such, they create negative relationships with all of the less strong-willed hyraxes around them in an attempt to control the group. This is an inherently unbalanced network; if hyraxes that dominate the social network really do put off others in their group, then the relationships leading from D to B and A to C must also be negative, creating inbalance and a socially stressful situation. A triangle of negative relationships is unstable because there will always be pressure to perhaps side with another one of your enemies to take down the third. In contrast, egalitarian networks would consist of positive links between each of the four nodes, a balanced situation (three positive relationships are balanced) with significantly less stress. With this analysis, it certainly seems plausible that the difference between lifespans can be attributed to relationship configuration and the stress that comes with it.