ReviewEcology and evolution2021
Understanding the unexplained: The magnitude and correlates of individual differences in residual variance.
Review in Ecology and evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Behavioral variation in mantled howler monkeys is structured by ecology and demography, not by individual signature.Primates; journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Article
- Born This Way: Individuality Is Seeded Before Birth and Robust to Ecological Stress.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Long-term repeatability and predictability of body temperature in dairy calves explored using reticulorumen temperature boluses.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Intraindividual Variability Matters for the Correspondence Between Subjective Arousal, Valence, and Physiological Responses.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Harvest and natural predation shape selection for behavioural predictability in male wild turkeys.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Estimating (Non)Linear Selection on Reaction Norms: A General Framework for Labile Traits.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Integrating behavioural thermoregulatory strategy into the animal personality framework using the common lizard, Zootoca vivipara as a model.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Testing personality-pace-of-life associations via artificial selection: insights from selected lines of rainbow trout on the context-dependence of correlations.Biology letters · 2024Review
- Behavioural ecology meets oncology: quantifying the recovery of animal behaviour to a transient exposure to a cancer risk factor.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Time-specific convergence and divergence in individual differences in behavior: Theory, protocols and analyzes.Ecology and evolution · 2023Review
- Phylogenetic meta-analysis reveals system-specific behavioural type-behavioural predictability correlations.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Temperature change exerts sex-specific effects on behavioural variation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Nutritional state variations in a tropical seabird throughout its breeding season.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2022Article
- Early social context does not influence behavioral variation at adulthood in ants.Current zoology · 2022Article
- Repeatability and Predictability of Calf Feeding Behaviors-Quantifying Between- and Within-Individual Variation for Precision Livestock Farming.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Article
- Understanding the unexplained: The magnitude and correlates of individual differences in residual variance.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
- Condition dependence of (un)predictability in escape behavior of a grasshopper species.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- Sex differences in the predictability of risk-taking behavior.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Behavioral and physiological ecologists have long been interested in explaining the causes and consequences of trait variation, with a focus on individual differences in mean values. However, the majority of phenotypic variation typically occurs within individuals, rather than among individuals (as indicated by average repeatability being less than 0.5). Recent studies have further shown that individuals can also differ in the magnitude of variation that is unexplained by individual variation or environmental factors (i.e., residual variation). The significance of residual variation, or why individuals differ, is largely unexplained, but is important from evolutionary, methodological, and statistical perspectives. Here, we broadly reviewed literature on individual variation in behavior and physiology, and located 39 datasets with sufficient repeated measures to evaluate individual differences in residual variance. We then analyzed these datasets using methods that permit direct comparisons of parameters across studies. This revealed substantial and widespread individual differences in residual variance. The magnitude of individual variation appeared larger in behavioral traits than in physiological traits, and heterogeneity was greater in more controlled situations. We discuss potential ecological and evolutionary implications of individual differences in residual variance and suggest productive future research directions.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.