Individuals often respond to social disturbances by increasing prosociality, which can strengthen social bonds, buffer against stress, and promote overall group cohesion. Given their importance in mediating stress responses, glucocorticoids have received considerable attention as potential proximate regulators of prosocial behaviour during disturbances. However, previous investigations have largely focused on mammals and our understanding of the potential prosocial effects of glucocorticoids across vertebrates more broadly is still lacking. Here, we assessed whether experimentally elevated glucocorticoid levels (simulating endogenous cortisol responses mounted following disturbances) promote prosocial behaviours in wild groups of the cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. Using SCUBA in Lake Tanganyika, we observed how subordinate group members adjusted affiliation, helping, and submission (all forms of prosocial behaviour) following underwater injections of either cortisol or saline. Cortisol treatment reduced affiliative behaviours—but only in females—suggesting that glucocorticoids may reduce overall prosociality. Fish with elevated glucocorticoid levels did not increase performance of submission or helping behaviours. Taken together, our results do not support a role for glucocorticoids in promoting prosocial behaviour in this species and emphasize the complexity of the proximate mechanisms that underlie prosociality.

个人通常会通过增加亲密度来应对社会动荡，这可以加强社会纽带，缓解压力并促进整体群体凝聚力。鉴于糖皮质激素在介导应激反应中的重要性，因此作为潜在的骚扰过程中亲社会行为的潜在调节者，受到了相当大的关注。然而，先前的研究主要集中在哺乳动物上，我们仍然缺乏对糖皮质激素在整个脊椎动物中潜在的亲社会作用的了解。在这里，我们评估了实验性升高的糖皮质激素水平（模拟扰动后引起的内源性皮质醇应答）是否促进了丽鱼科鱼类（Neolamprologus pulcher）野生群体的亲社会行为。。在坦any尼喀湖上使用SCUBA，我们观察了水下注射皮质醇或生理盐水后下属成员如何调整从属，帮助和屈服（各种形式的亲社会行为）。皮质醇治疗减少了结附行为-但仅在女性中-提示糖皮质激素可能会降低整体社会亲和力。糖皮质激素水平升高的鱼并没有增加顺从性或帮助行为的表现。两者合计，我们的研究结果不支持糖皮质激素在促进该物种亲社会行为中的作用，并强调了构成亲社会性的近端机制的复杂性。