Social learning is widespread in the animal kingdom, but individuals can differ in how they acquire and use social information. Personality traits, such as neophobia, may, for example, promote individual learning strategies. Here, we contribute comparative data on social learning strategies in carnivorans by examining whether narrow-striped mongooses (Mungotictis decemlineata), a group-living Malagasy euplerid, learn socially and whether neophobia influences social learning. To this end, we tested seven wild female groups with a two-option artificial feeding box, using a demonstrator–observer paradigm, and conducted novel object tests to assess neophobia. In five groups, one individual was trained as a demonstrator displaying one of the techniques, whereas the other two groups served as control groups. Neophobia did not co-vary with an individual’s propensity to seek social information. However, less neophobic individuals, and individuals that tended to seek social information, learned the task faster. Moreover, individuals in demonstrator groups learned the task faster than those in groups without a demonstrator and used the demonstrated technique more often. Hence, narrow-striped mongooses rely on social facilitation and local or stimulus enhancement to solve new problems. Finally, our results suggest that several individual characteristics should be taken into consideration to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of social learning strategies.

社交学习在动物界很普遍，但是个人在获取和使用社交信息的方式上可能有所不同。人格特质，例如新恐惧症，可能会促进个人学习策略。在这里，我们通过检查狭窄的猫鼬（Mungotictis decemlineata）来提供食肉动物社会学习策略的比较数据。），是生活在马达加斯加语中的一群人，对社交有所了解，而恐惧症是否会影响社交学习。为此，我们使用演示者-观察者范式，用两个选项的人工喂养箱对七个野生雌性种群进行了测试，并进行了新颖的物体测试以评估恐惧症。在五个小组中，一个人被训练为演示者展示其中一种技术，而另外两个小组为对照组。新恐惧症并没有随个人寻求社会信息的倾向而改变。但是，新恐惧症患者较少，并且倾向于寻求社会信息，因此可以更快地学习任务。而且，与没有演示者的小组相比，演示者小组的个人学习任务的速度更快，并且更经常使用所演示的技术。因此，窄条猫鼬依靠社会便利和地方或刺激措施来解决新问题。最后，我们的研究结果表明，应考虑几个个人特征，以更全面地理解社会学习策略。