Abstract
Multiple evolutionary phenomena require individual animals to assess conspecifics based on behaviors, morphology, or both. Both behavior and morphology can provide information about individuals and are often used as signals to convey information about quality, motivation, or energetic output. In certain cases, conspecific receivers of this information must rank these signaling individuals based on specific traits. The efficacy of information transfer associated within a signal is likely related to the type of trait used to signal, though few studies have investigated the relative effectiveness of contrasting signaling systems. I present a set of models that represent a large portion of signaling systems and compare them in terms of the ability of receivers to rank signalers accurately. Receivers more accurately assess signalers if the signalers use traits that do not require non-food resources; similarly, receivers more accurately ranked signalers if all the signalers could be observed simultaneously, similar to leks. Surprisingly, I also found that receivers are only slightly better at ranking signaler effort if the effort results in a cumulative structure. This series of findings suggests that receivers may attend to specific traits because the traits provide more information relative to others; and similarly, these results may explain the preponderance of morphological and behavioral display signals.
Highlights
The social environment presents situations where alternative behavioral decisions can result in considerably different returns in inclusive fitness for the individual making the decision
Assessing conspecifics is a fundamental requirement for individual organisms and a fundamental assumption of several biological phenomena, such as direct and indirect reciprocity [6], punishment [7], and sexual selection [8,9]
When signalers rely on external items for display the receivers do not rank displayers as accurately as when external items are not needed (Figure 1)
Summary
The social environment presents situations where alternative behavioral decisions can result in considerably different returns in inclusive fitness for the individual making the decision. In some empirical systems ranking and remembering individuals is critical for the maintenance of sexually selected traits [10]; whether the traits are morphological features or behavioral displays, individuals are often required to sample partners and select mates based on individual characteristics [11]. The maintenance of some sexually selected traits relies on these two criteria: first, individuals signal traits that convey potential direct or indirect benefits of the individual bearing the trait; and second, individuals assessing potential mates can remember and reliably rank individuals based on trait values [9]. As demonstrated by female bowerbirds, individuals assessing potential partners can base their behavioral decisions on some intrinsic property of a signaler such as body size [11], on some sort of external structure, such as a nest [14,15], or both [16,17]
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