Humans exhibit major age-related shifts in social relationships along with changes in social and emotional psychological processes that underpin these behavioural shifts. Does social ageing in non-human primates follow similar patterns, and if so, what are the ultimate evolutionary consequences of these social shifts? Here we synthesize empirical evidence for shifts in social behaviour and underlying psychological processes across species. Focusing on three elements of social behaviour and cognition that are important for humans—propensities to engage with others, the positive versus negative valence of these interactions, and capabilities to influence others, we find evidence for wide variation in the trajectories of these characteristics across primates. Based on this, we identify potential modulators of the primate social ageing process, including social organization, sex and dominance status. Finally, we discuss how comparative research can contextualize human social ageing.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution of the primate ageing process’.

人类在社会关系中表现出与年龄相关的重大变化，以及支撑这些行为变化的社会和情感心理过程的变化。非人类灵长类动物的社会老龄化是否遵循类似的模式，如果是，这些社会转变的最终进化后果是什么？在这里，我们综合了跨物种社会行为和潜在心理过程变化的经验证据。关注对人类很重要的社会行为和认知的三个要素——与他人交往的倾向、这些互动的正负价以及影响力的能力其他人，我们发现灵长类动物的这些特征的轨迹存在很大差异的证据。基于此，我们确定了灵长类社会衰老过程的潜在调节因素，包括社会组织、性别和支配地位。最后，我们讨论了比较研究如何将人类社会老龄化背景化。

这篇文章是主题问题“灵长类动物衰老过程的演变”的一部分。