ArticlePloS one2013
Conditional use of social and private information guides house-hunting ants.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Conformity and individual preference shape nest material use in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).PloS one · 2026Article
- No coordination required for resources allocation during colony fission in a social insect? An individual-based model reproduces empirical patterns.Animal cognition · 2022Article
- Hard limits to cognitive flexibility: ants can learn to ignore but not avoid pheromone trails.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
- Article
- Personal information about danger trumps social information from avian alarm calls.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Nest prospecting brown-headed cowbirds 'parasitize' social information when the value of personal information is lacking.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Ants work harder during consensus decision-making in small groups.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2014Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
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Abstract
Social animals can use both social and private information to guide decision making. While social information can be relatively economical to acquire, it can lead to maladaptive information cascades if attention to environmental cues is supplanted by unconditional copying. Ants frequently employ pheromone trails, a form of social information, to guide collective processes, and this can include consensus decisions made when choosing a place to live. In this study, I examine how house-hunting ants balance social and private information when these information sources conflict to different degrees. Social information, in the form of pre-established pheromone trails, strongly influenced the decision process in choices between equivalent nests, and lead to a reduced relocation time. When trails lead to non-preferred types of nest, however, social information had less influence when this preference was weak and no influence when the preference was strong. These results suggest that social information is vetted against private information during the house-hunting process in this species. Private information is favoured in cases of conflict and this may help insure colonies against costly wrong decisions.
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