ReadingAnimals

New research announced today has shed new light on how groups of fish make decisions about their actions and their leaders.  There seem to be swing voters, undecideds and those who change their minds after things are underway.  For the sake of popular science media, comparisons have been made to human voting behavior and to the volatile stock market. 

For example, study author David Sumpter noted:

“Just now there is a lot of discussion about traders unable to make their own assessment and panic selling because others are selling. In these instances, this behavior seems somewhat irrational. But in lots of other scenarios, such behavior is perfectly rational. Watching others and copying them if enough individuals seem to be doing the same thing is generally a good behavioral strategy.” (source)

The fish were choosing between model fish who did or did not have traits that signal evolutionary fitness - traits like body size, health, etc. The expectation was that the winner would consistently be the fish with these traits that boost survival and reproduction. Things didn’t always pan out that way, though. The decision making process in these fish groups explains why that was the case.

“As the voting pool grew in size, the proportion of fish making the “correct” choice—that is, following the fitter candidate, as indicated by visual cues such as size, color and spottiness—increased, indicating a beneficial feedback mechanism at work.” (Source: Scientific American)

Just how often do we underestimate the complexity, elegance or subtlety in the social and emotional lives of animals? What might that mean for our understanding of animals? Ourselves? The network that includes all of us? Fascinating stuff!

Check out the article abstract and more details at Current Biology.