Date & Time: Cincinnati (10 am), Los Angeles (7 am), Bath (3 pm), Munich (4 pm), Singapore (11 pm), Beijing (11 pm), Sydney (December 2, 2 am)

Jordan Adamson will present his paper titled "The Geography of Resources, Conflict, and Territory in Hominids" (joint work with Bart J. Wilson).

Abstract of the Paper:
In this paper, we aim to explain how ecological forces affect territorial conflict in humans as a specific instance of hominid behavior. To explain whether we peacefully partition space or fight in either ''scramble'' or ''contest'' competition, we first organize the literature on the territorial conflict in hominids into a general economic model. We isolate how resource skew and variance affect territorial ranges, as well as how they interact with unequal appropriation abilities. We then test the predictions in a controlled laboratory setting. We find more territorial exclusivity and less range overlap than predicted with equal contestants with nonskewed resources, but some tendencies towards monopolization by better appropriators in skewed resource environments. Nonetheless, behavior generally matches the theoretical predictions.  We also probe the effects of red-coloring and treatment-order, finding only that more exclusive ranges arise when equal subjects first interact in nonskewed environments. Overall, we provide a good starting point for a general understanding of territorial conflict in hominids.

Chair: Dan Kovenock, Co-Chair: Iryna Topolyan