Abstract
Humans usually assess things not according to their absolute value, but relative to reference points - a main tenant of Prospect Theory. For example, people rate a new salary relative to previous salaries and salaries of their peers, rather than absolute income. We demonstrate a similar effect in an insect: ants expecting to find low-quality food showed higher acceptance of medium-quality food than ants expecting medium quality, and vice versa for high expectations. Further experiments demonstrate that these contrast effects arise from cognitive rather than mere sensory or pre-cognitive perceptual causes. Social information gained inside the nest can also serve as a reference point: the quality of food received from other ants affected the perceived value of food found later. Value judgement is a key element in decision making, and thus relative value perception strongly influences which option is chosen and ultimately how all animals make decisions.
Highlights
We all compare options when making both large and small decisions, ranging from career choice to the choice of an evening’s entertainment
We demonstrate that relative value perception arises from non-rational cognitive effects, rather than rational decision-making, physiological effects, or psychophysical phenomena
& F) Number of pheromone depositions on the way back to the nest shown in experiment 2 for A), C) & E) the eight training visits in which ants received 0.25M coupled with one scent and 1.5M coupled with another scent in an alternating order, always starting with 0.25M. and B), D) & F) the test visit in which ants always received unscented 0.5M sucrose solution, but the runway leading towards the food source was impregnated with one of the learned scents, triggering an expectation towards receiving either high or low molarities at the end of the runway
Summary
We all compare options when making both large and small decisions, ranging from career choice to the choice of an evening’s entertainment. 2), in the test (contrast) visit acceptance scores decreased significantly with increasing molarity of the reference quality
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