<p>Animals of large group-living species that exhibit dispersal or have overlapping territories with other groups frequently encounter novel conspecifics. To avoid injury, successfully obtain a mate, integrate into a new group, and/or to determine one’s social rank, it is crucial to accurately assess social information. The lateral hypothalamus (LH) is critical for learning about food-related cues and shifting behavior toward or away from salient events. While the LH facilitates risk assessment in dyadic social competitions, how the LH modulates social behavior in non-aggressive contexts with novel peers remains unknown. In the highly colonial spiny mouse (<i>Acomys dimidiatus</i>), we used chemogenetics to inhibit the LH of females as they interacted with novel peers in a novel vs. familiar preference test, a group size preference test, and a group interaction test. Although control females were investigative and prosocial (e.g., affiliative proximity), they exhibited significant social avoidance of a novel peer group. However, we found that inhibition of the LH induced a preference for social novelty, decreased social avoidance, and promoted affiliative proximity and huddling with a novel, previously established group of peers. These findings suggest that the LH may function to promote cautious behavior, potentially via risk assessment, in novel social environments.</p>