Social facilitation of pecking and drinking in "satiated" chickens

Abstract

Pecking in chickens is a ubiquitous response that does not appear to be exclusively linked to any single motivational state. Because of this, certain earlier findings are ambiguous regarding the extent to which socially mediated pecking in chickens extends to theories of social facilitation effects. In the current research, drinking was identified as a possible alternative response for the study of socially mediated consummatory behavior in chickens. Tests of satiated subjects paired with deprived companions (or tested alone) showed that the pattern and relative amount of the social facilitation of drinking conformed exactly to the pattern for pecking. Therefore, it was concluded that socially enhanced consummatory behavior in the chicken can bear on theories of social facilitation. © 1976 Psychonomic Society, Inc.