Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 4 complete abstracts (825 words), 10 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
Any behavior caused by or affecting another individual or group usually of the same species.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Behavior, Social; Behaviors, Social; Social Behaviors; Sociality.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Behavior
- Narrower topics
- Aggression; Altruism; Anomie; Cell Phone Use; Ceremonial Behavior; Competitive Behavior; Cooperative Behavior; Deception; Dehumanization; Empowerment; Femininity; Gift Giving; Harassment, Non-Sexual; Help-Seeking Behavior
- See also
- Interpersonal Relations
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 334,193 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Social Behavior” (counts retrieved 2026-10-31). 79,871 of them (23.9%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is 2010-2019 with 116,882 records.
Reviews account for 29,547 records (8.8%) and meta-analyses for 2,115. Randomized controlled trials number 8,136 (2.4%) as a share of all records on the topic.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 70,009 |
| 2000-2009 | 67,431 |
| 2010-2019 | 116,882 |
| 2020 onward | 79,871 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 29,547 | 8.8% |
| Meta-analyses | 2,115 | 0.6% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 8,136 | 2.4% |
Method: PubMed query "Social Behavior"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-10-31.
Reading the evidence in psychiatry and psychology
Research on mental health and behaviour relies on questionnaires, interviews and rating scales rather than physical measurements, so how a condition was defined and measured shapes every result. Many studies are observational or small, placebo responses can be large, and findings in one group or culture may not carry over to another. Nothing on this page is advice about diagnosis or treatment; anyone worried about their mental health should talk to a qualified clinician. Check how outcomes were measured, who took part and how long they were followed.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mutual positive engagement with mother is uniquely associated with increases in human infant heart rate variability | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 42779437 · DOI · PMC13601893 |
| Social relationships promote access to food and information in wild jackdaws | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 1 | cc by PMID 42838555 · DOI · PMC13641922 |
| Aggressive conflict used as landmark information in homing desert ants | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 1 | cc by PMID 42704241 · DOI · PMC13615672 |
| Innovative humanitarian finance: examining the promises and realities of impact bonds in humanitarian and refugee response | 2027 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 0 | cc by PMID 42946533 · DOI · PMC13713432 |
Mutual positive engagement with mother is uniquely associated with increases in human infant heart rate variability [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- The ability of human infants to dynamically adapt their physiological states to changing social demands is critical for the development of emotion regulation.
- Closing excerpt
- This article is part of the theme issue 'Mechanisms, development, phylogeny and functions of emotional expressions'.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (213 words)
The ability of human infants to dynamically adapt their physiological states to changing social demands is critical for the development of emotion regulation. We investigated infant parasympathetic dynamics related to emotion regulation-changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)-using a large sample of 974 at-risk infant-mother dyads (infant age: 4 months). Infant RSA was elevated during bouts of positive engagement matching with their mothers, characterized by mutual positive engagement. Specifically, infant RSA began to increase more than 5 seconds before the onset of bouts of positive engagement matching and remained elevated for at least 4 seconds after bout onsets. These periods were substantially extended when the bouts began with positive expressions from the mother. Strikingly, there were no increases in infant RSA before or during bouts of either infant or mother solo positive engagement. Findings from these exploratory analyses suggest the possibility of bi-directional associations between ongoing social interactions and infant parasympathetic reactivity in which positive mother expressions support increases in infant RSA that in turn support prolonged infant engagement in mutual positivity. Thus, early social interaction is not simply an elicitor of infant positive expressions. Instead, mutual positive expressivity may facilitate infant neurophysiological changes that underlie emotion regulation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Mechanisms, development, phylogeny and functions of emotional expressions'.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42779437 · DOI · PMC13601893
Social relationships promote access to food and information in wild jackdaws [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Many animals form differentiated social relationships that can influence fitness, but the mechanisms behind these benefits are often unclear.
- Closing excerpt
- Short-term effects on foraging success may therefore contribute to long-term fitness advantages of strong social relationships.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (215 words)
Many animals form differentiated social relationships that can influence fitness, but the mechanisms behind these benefits are often unclear. How does the presence of social partners during foraging enhance access to food or information? Might individuals also incur short-term costs, for example, by foregoing feeding opportunities to remain with and support social partners? Here, we investigated how social relationships shape foraging decisions and outcomes in wild jackdaws (Corvus monedula) using automated radio frequency identification (RFID) feeding stations where two birds could perch but only one could feed, with the other queueing behind ('dyadic events'). Bonded social partners (pair-bonded mates and kin) engaged in these dyadic events more frequently than other dyads and they coordinated their visits, as shown by shorter dyadic arrival latencies. Bonded partners also showed higher social tolerance and possibly social support, with feeding individuals benefitting from a lower probability of being displaced when a partner was present. Queuing individuals accepted short-term time costs to remain with their social partners. For juveniles, following their parents probably promoted access to social information about feeder use. These findings show that social relationships influence decision-making and foraging performance in the wild, revealing both benefits and costs of maintaining close bonds. Short-term effects on foraging success may therefore contribute to long-term fitness advantages of strong social relationships.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42838555 · DOI · PMC13641922
Aggressive conflict used as landmark information in homing desert ants [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Across many species of the animal kingdom, the ability to navigate long distances is important for securing food and other resources.
- Closing excerpt
- Apparently, ants remember aggressive interactions and take them into account when navigating.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (246 words)
Across many species of the animal kingdom, the ability to navigate long distances is important for securing food and other resources. For example, ants, bees and rats have long been known to use path integration, a mechanism to integrate distance and direction travelled, to find their way back to their nest. However, path integration is imperfect, and errors accumulate over time as animals forage. There are several ways to counteract this uncertainty, for example by utilizing local olfactory or visual landmarks along a familiar route to infer an individual's position relative to its nest, i.e. its homing vector. Local landmarks are thought to be effective if they are constant, granting a strong association with the discrete location at which they are located. Here, we showed that ants can utilize something much sparser and more distributed than an individual constant landmark to inform its homing vector. Our data suggest that Tunisian desert ants integrate intraspecific contact, or social cues, to augment navigation. Although exposing homing ants that arrive at their expected nest position to colony members has no effect on their subsequent nest-search behaviour, contact with foreign conspecifics at a position where the nest is expected diminishes path integration certainty, thereby expanding the nest search pattern. Furthermore, we showed that ants form associations between intraspecific conflict and discrete locations to create so-called local vectors, within which the homing path to the nest can be stored. Apparently, ants remember aggressive interactions and take them into account when navigating.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42704241 · DOI · PMC13615672
Innovative humanitarian finance: examining the promises and realities of impact bonds in humanitarian and refugee response [4]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- This article contributes to scholarship on innovative humanitarian finance by examining the application of impact bonds-an outcome-based financing mechanism where investors fund projects upfront and are repaid with interest if they succeed.
- Closing excerpt
- The article therefore underscores the need for a rigorous evaluation of new financing mechanisms before adoption.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (151 words)
This article contributes to scholarship on innovative humanitarian finance by examining the application of impact bonds-an outcome-based financing mechanism where investors fund projects upfront and are repaid with interest if they succeed. Amid consistent funding shortfalls, impact bonds were framed as a radical transformation in how aid can be financed and delivered. By sharing financial risk with investors and linking payment to results, they were meant to attract private capital and enhance aid effectiveness. However, this study reveals a gap between the expectations and realities of impact bonds through case studies of two pilots: the Humanitarian Impact Bond (International Committee of the Red Cross); and the Refugee Impact Bond (Near East Foundation). In practice, impact bonds did not generate additional funds for the humanitarian sector, transfer significant risk to investors, or outperform traditionally financed programmes. The article therefore underscores the need for a rigorous evaluation of new financing mechanisms before adoption.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42946533 · DOI · PMC13713432
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Emotion regulation in substance use disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis [5]
- Research article Emotion regulation and substance use: A meta-analysis [6]
- Research article Global prevalence of social isolation among community-dwelling older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis [7]
- Research article A revised and extended systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between childhood adversity and adult psychiatric disorder [8]
- Research article Cooperative Behavior Evokes Interbrain Synchrony in the Prefrontal and Temporoparietal Cortex: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of fNIRS Hyperscanning Studies [9]
- Research article Traditional bullying and cyberbullying in the digital age and its associated mental health problems in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis [10]
References
- Abney DH, Sheinkopf SJ, Mitsven SG, Seifer R, Lester BM, Tronick EZ, et al.. Mutual positive engagement with mother is uniquely associated with increases in human infant heart rate variability. . 2026. PMID 42779437 · DOI · PMC13601893
- Hahn LG, McIvor GE, Fürtbauer I, King AJ, Thornton A. Social relationships promote access to food and information in wild jackdaws. . 2026. PMID 42838555 · DOI · PMC13641922
- Bollig A, Freire M, Bücking K, Kühnapfel J, Knaden M. Aggressive conflict used as landmark information in homing desert ants. . 2026. PMID 42704241 · DOI · PMC13615672
- Zulkaphil L. Innovative humanitarian finance: examining the promises and realities of impact bonds in humanitarian and refugee response. . 2027. PMID 42946533 · DOI · PMC13713432
- Stellern J, Xiao KB, Grennell E, Sanches M, Gowin JL, Sloan ME. Emotion regulation in substance use disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Addiction. 2023. PMID 35851975 · DOI · PMC10087816
- Weiss NH, Kiefer R, Goncharenko S, Raudales AM, Forkus SR, Schick MR, et al.. Emotion regulation and substance use: A meta-analysis. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2022. PMID 34864568 · DOI · PMC8714680
- Teo RH, Cheng WH, Cheng LJ, Lau Y, Lau ST. Global prevalence of social isolation among community-dwelling older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2023. PMID 36563614 · DOI
- McKay MT, Kilmartin L, Meagher A, Cannon M, Healy C, Clarke MC. A revised and extended systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between childhood adversity and adult psychiatric disorder. J Psychiatr Res. 2022. PMID 36274532 · DOI
- Czeszumski A, Liang SH, Dikker S, König P, Lee CP, Koole SL, et al.. Cooperative Behavior Evokes Interbrain Synchrony in the Prefrontal and Temporoparietal Cortex: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of fNIRS Hyperscanning Studies. eNeuro. 2022. PMID 35365502 · DOI · PMC9014979
- Li C, Wang P, Martin-Moratinos M, Bella-Fernández M, Blasco-Fontecilla H. Traditional bullying and cyberbullying in the digital age and its associated mental health problems in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2024. PMID 36585978 · DOI · PMC11424704
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-11-04; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-11-04.
See how EvidenceLib is built. Spotted an error? Email support@evidencehelix.com.
Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.