ISSUES IN THE GENETICS OF SOCIAL-BEHAVIOR - REVISITED

Though social behavior has not been overlooked by behavior geneticists , the number of studies is small when compared to those on individual traits. One reason for the neglect may be the difficulty of making con nections between genes and social behaviors, which by definition invol ve the interaction of two or more organisms. Fuller and Hahn (1976) ad dressed this issue and described three means of establishing social gr oups that would facilitate genetic analysis. We survey the literature on agonistic behavior in mice from 1976 through 1994 and describe inte resting uses of those three methods. One of those methods (the standar d tester design) often employs a ''noninteractive'' social partner. We present data showing that the standard tester design may be more valu able when using an evocative and interactive standard tester.