Personality in animals has been extensively researched in recent decades. Temporal consistency of behaviors is almost always part of the personality definition and is usually explored in several different testing sessions or observation periods. However, it is still unclear whether the obtained personality constructs are stable across several years, which might be especially important for long‐living animals, such as primates. Further, little is known on whether the personality structures obtained in the laboratory reflect the structures obtained under ecologically relevant conditions in the wild. Therefore, we conducted a battery of personality tests on common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) (N = 27), compared it with a test battery conducted 4 years beforehand on a subset of animals in captivity (N = 13) and ran an adapted version under field conditions at Baracuhy Biological Field Station, Brazil (N = 18). Under captive conditions, we found a remarkably similar personality structure across 4 testing years. Further, we found high long‐term temporal consistency in the first two personality components, Boldness and Exploration; however, monkeys that changed their social (i.e., breeding) status between the two testing periods showed a significant increase in Boldness scores. Under field conditions, we found a somewhat similar personality structure as compared to the laboratory, which to some extent corroborates ecological validity of our personality test design. Nevertheless, whether the structure in the wild is suppressed or expanded in comparison to captivity, and in which way the social setting influences personality structure, should be further explored. Taken together, our results contribute to the discussion about the reliability and ecological validity of personality structures in nonhuman primates.

中文翻译：

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普通mar猴（Callithrix jacchus）人格结构的时间一致性和生态有效性：一个统一的领域和实验室方法

近几十年来，动物的人格得到了广泛的研究。行为的时间一致性几乎总是人格定义的一部分，通常在几个不同的测试阶段或观察期中进行探讨。但是，尚不清楚所获得的人格结构在几年内是否稳定，这对于像灵长类动物这样的长寿动物尤其重要。此外，关于在实验室中获得的人格结构是否反映了在野外与生态相关的条件下获得的结构的知之甚少。因此，我们对普通mar猴（Callithrix jacchus）（N = 27），并将其与事先对 一群圈养的动物（N = 13）进行的测试电池组进行了比较（N = 13），并在巴西Baracuhy Biological Field Station的野外条件下进行了改版（N = 18）。在囚禁条件下，我们发现4个测试年份的人格结构非常相似。此外，我们发现前两个人格成分“大胆”和“探索”具有高度的长期时间一致性。但是，在两个测试阶段之间改变其社交（即繁殖）状态的猴子的大胆分数显着提高。在野外条件下，我们发现与实验室相比，人格结构有些相似，这在一定程度上证实了我们人格测试设计的生态有效性。然而，与囚禁相比，野外的结构是否受到抑制或扩大，以及社会环境如何影响人格结构，应进一步探索。在一起