Transition from positive to negative on the leadership effect of the biological particles group

Abstract

This paper reports the existence of the negative effect of leadership on the collective motion of biological particles and shows that the effect of leadership may transit from positive to negative with the change in the sensing capability of the particles. Simulations were conducted in many scenarios using a simple individual-based model. The results showed that leadership can accelerate the collective motion of the biological particles and play a positive role when the sensing capability of the particles is very limited. However, when the sensing capability of the particles becomes large enough, leadership may actually slow the collective motion of the biological particles. This unusual result suggests that leadership may have a negative effect on the collective motion of biological particles. Our finding provides a new insight into how effective leadership can be achieved in a biological particles group.