Abstract
Correct decision making is crucial for animals to maximize foraging success and minimize predation risk. Group-living animals can make such decisions by using their own personal information or by pooling information with other group members (i.e. social information). Here, we investigate how individuals might best balance their use of personal and social information. We use a simple modelling approach in which individual decisions based upon social information are more likely to be correct when more individuals are involved and their personal information is more accurate. Our model predicts that when the personal information of group members is poor (accurate less than half the time), individuals should avoid pooling information. In contrast, when personal information is reliable (accurate at least half the time), individuals should use personal information less often and social information more often, and this effect should grow stronger in larger groups. One implication of this pattern is that social information allows less well-informed members of large groups to reach a correct decision with the same probability as more well-informed members of small groups. Thus, animals in larger groups may be able to minimize the costs of collecting personal information without impairing their ability to make correct decisions.
Highlights
When moving through its habitat, a group-living animal directly interacts with its environment to gather both ‘personal information’ from environmental cues and ‘social information’ from the behaviour of conspecifics (Grocott 2003; Dall et al 2005)
All the analyses are for odd groups sizes only, 1!n!51, to avoid ties. This model considers a simplified case where (i) information is discrete, (ii) group membership is homogeneous, and (iii) personal and social information are available
When the quality of personal information is poor (Ip!0.5), decisions based on pooled information are less likely to be correct than those based on personal information alone
Summary
When moving through its habitat, a group-living animal directly interacts with its environment to gather both ‘personal information’ from environmental cues and ‘social information’ from the behaviour of conspecifics (Grocott 2003; Dall et al 2005). Individuals monitoring the behaviour of other group members may be able to make faster, more accurate assessments of their environment through the information that signals and cues provide ( Valone & Templeton 2002). Individuals will use socially acquired and personal information according to the respective reliability of these alternative information sources (Bergen et al 2004; Dall et al 2005). The balance between personal and social information use is likely to reflect individuals adjusting their decision making to exploit the most reliable information available ( Nordell & Valone 1998; Bergen et al 2004). The relative quality of social versus personal information and the number of individuals sharing information (i.e. group size) are likely to be crucial determinants in this process (e.g. Bergen et al 2004; Fraser et al 2006). A general understanding of how these factors interact to influence information use remains to be established
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