%0 Journal Article %A Amici, Federica %A Widdig, Anja %+ Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society %T An evolutionary perspective on the development of primate sociality : %G eng %U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0004-5F6B-B %R 10.1007/s00265-019-2722-8 %7 2019-08-01 %D 2019 %* Review method: peer-reviewed %X It is now well established that sociality plays a crucial role in primates. For example, among non-human primates, individuals with strong social bonds significantly increase their fecundity, reproductive success, offspring survival and longevity. Also in humans, social integration positively affects psychological stress, health and survival. However, despite the evidence that sociality is a fundamental fitness trait, relatively little is known about how sociality develops. Previous studies are mainly limited to the development of human sociality in Western cultures. Hence, to increase our knowledge about important human developmental milestones, an inter-specific and inter-cultural approach is needed. In particular, to understand the evolutionary roots of human sociality, studies on non-human primates are of large importance. The present Topical Collection is divided into four parts addressing (i) the effect of main bonding partners (mothers, siblings, peers) on social development in non-human primates; (ii) other factors affecting social development, such as sex differences, genetic constraints and personality; (iii) how social cognition and multimodal communication develop through early life in non-human primates and (iv) how human sociality develops through ontogeny, with a special focus on cross-cultural differences. In this paper, we introduce the development of sociality from an evolutionary perspective, briefly summarise each contribution of this Topical Collection and close with possible future directions. We aim to summarise the current state of research on the development of primate sociality, stimulate inter-disciplinary research and provide insight into the outstanding variability in social development across non-human primate species and human cultures. %J Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology %V 73 %N 8 %] 116 %@ 1432-0762