DOI: 10.5061/dryad.g38qb00
title: Data from: Mesotocin influences pinyon jay prosociality.

description: Many species exhibit prosocial behavior, in which one individual’s actions
 benefit another individual, often without an immediate benefit to itself.
 The neuropeptide oxytocin is an important hormonal mechanism influencing
 prosociality in mammals, but it is unclear whether the avian homologue
 mesotocin plays a similar functional role in birds. Here, we
 experimentally tested prosociality in pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus
 cyanocephalus), a highly social corvid species that spontaneously shares
 food with others. First, we measured prosocial preferences in a prosocial
 choice task with two different payoff distributions: Prosocial trials
 delivered food to both the subject and either an empty cage or a partner
 bird, whereas Altruism trials delivered food only to an empty cage or a
 partner bird (none to subject). In a second experiment, we examined
 whether administering mesotocin influenced prosocial preferences. Compared
 to choices in a control condition, we show that subjects voluntarily
 delivered food rewards to partners, but only when also receiving food for
 themselves (Prosocial trials), and administration of high levels of
 mesotocin increased these behaviors. Thus, in birds, mesotocin seems to
 play a similar functional role in facilitating prosocial behaviors as
 oxytocin does in mammals, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved hormonal
 mechanism for prosociality.
description: All data from Experiment
 1 (no hormonal manipulation) and Experiment 2 (mesotocin
 manipulation)These data come from a
 prosocial choice task conducted on captive pinyon jays. Experiment 1
 measured baseline preferences (i.e. without hormonal manipulation), and
 Experiment 2 involved administration of a high or low dose of mesotocin
 (the avian homolog of oxytocin) or a saline control. Description of the
 relevant columns for "all_data.csv": A: dataset - either 1 (for
 Experiment 1, no hormones) or 2 (for Experiment 2, with hormonal
 manipulation) B: donor - a unique numeric identifier for each subject in
 the study C: date - date that session in corresponding row was conducted
 D: session - sequential numbering for each subject's session E: trial
 - specific trial number within a session F: partner - location of partner
 (either N- no partner, L-left sidecage, or R-right sidecage) G: recipient
 - if present, a unique numeric identifier for each recipient in the study
 H: payoff_condition - trial type; either Pre-Test (attention trials), Side
 bias (bias trials), or Prosocial/Altruistic I: partner_present - either
 'Partner absent' or 'Partner present' J: hormone -
 hormone condition: NA for Experiment 1; A, B, C, or SAL for Experiment 2
 (experimenters were blind to condition) K: right.left - subject's
 choice on that trial, either right or left wire L: response - FOR PRE-TEST
 (i.e. attention trials): 1 if subject correctly chose side with food, 0 if
 incorrect L: response - FOR SIDE BIAS (i.e. bias trials): 1 if subject
 chose LEFT, 0 if RIGHT L: response - FOR PROSOCIAL/ALTRUISTIC: IF partner
 absent, 1 if subject chose LEFT, 0 if RIGHT L: response - FOR
 PROSOCIAL/ALTRUISTIC: IF partner present, 1 if subject chose same side as
 partner, 0 if not.all_data.csvSupp. Materials for Duque et al 2018 Jay ProsocialityThis document contains Supplementary Methods (Subject information, detailed procedure for habituation/training and experimental phases, and additional analyses (weighted prosocial/altruistic tendency) and figures.Duque et al Supplementary Materials.pdfDuque_et_al_2018_rcodeThis Rcode is for Duque et al. 2018 Mesotocin influences pinyon jay prosociality. It is annotated for replication of all results, figures, and analyses. Absolute tendency appears in main text; Weighted tendency in supplementary.