scholarly journals Individual boldness is linked to protective shell shape in aquatic snails

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 20150029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Ahlgren ◽  
Ben B. Chapman ◽  
P. Anders Nilsson ◽  
Christer Brönmark
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Shell Shape ◽  
Evolutionary Time ◽  
Radix Balthica ◽  
Predation Costs ◽  
Risk Cost ◽  
Compensation Hypothesis

The existence of consistent individual differences in behaviour (‘animal personality’) has been well documented in recent years. However, how such individual variation in behaviour is maintained over evolutionary time is an ongoing conundrum. A well-studied axis of animal personality is individual variation along a bold–shy continuum, where individuals differ consistently in their propensity to take risks. A predation-risk cost to boldness is often assumed, but also that the reproductive benefits associated with boldness lead to equivalent fitness outcomes between bold and shy individuals over a lifetime. However, an alternative or complementary explanation may be that bold individuals phenotypically compensate for their risky lifestyle to reduce predation costs, for instance by investing in more pronounced morphological defences. Here, we investigate the ‘phenotypic compensation’ hypothesis, i.e. that bold individuals exhibit more pronounced anti-predator defences than shy individuals, by relating shell shape in the aquatic snail Radix balthica to an index of individual boldness. Our analyses find a strong relationship between risk-taking propensity and shell shape in this species, with bolder individuals exhibiting a more defended shell shape than shy individuals. We suggest that this supports the ‘phenotypic compensation’ hypothesis and sheds light on a previously poorly studied mechanism to promote the maintenance of personality variation among animals.

scholarly journals The effect of acute alcohol intoxication on risk attitude

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kayleigh McCarty
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Risk Attitude ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Alcohol Problems ◽  
Acute Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Placebo Condition ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors

There is a strong relationship between engaging in risk taking behaviors, or behaviors with a high probability of negative and undesirable consequences, and the use of alcohol and other substances of abuse. Mounting evidence suggests that dysfunctional decision making contributes to the development and maintenance of addiction and related behaviors. This study explored the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on decision making under risk. Regular drinkers were recruited for a within subjects, placebo controlled, alcohol administration study. They completed a decision-making task at peak alcohol intoxication and at a time matched assessment in a placebo condition, as well as several baseline measures. The aim of this study was to examine whether alcohol intoxication impacts risk attitude. The associations between risk attitude and related personality traits, problematic alcohol use, and alcohol related risk-taking behaviors were also tested. The results of the study suggest that intoxicated risk attitude, and not risk attitude in the placebo condition, is associated with indices of alcohol consumption and to a lesser extent, alcohol consequences. Alcohol intoxication did not significantly impact risk attitude classification. Risk attitude was not associated with impulsive personality traits, alcohol expectancies, or risk-taking behaviors. While risk attitude may have utility for identifying those who are at risk for alcohol problems, tasks designed to assess behavior specific decision processes may be useful for understanding risky patterns of decision making.

scholarly journals Demystifying animal ‘personality’ (or not): why individual variation matters to experimental biologists

2016 ◽  
Vol 219 (24) ◽  
pp. 3832-3843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique G. Roche ◽  
Vincent Careau ◽  
Sandra A. Binning
Keyword(s):  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality

scholarly journals Evolutionary causes and consequences of consistent individual variation in cooperative behaviour

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1553) ◽  
pp. 2751-2764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Bergmüller ◽  
Roger Schürch ◽  
Ian M. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Behavioural Syndrome ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Fitness Consequences

Behaviour is typically regarded as among the most flexible of animal phenotypic traits. In particular, expression of cooperative behaviour is often assumed to be conditional upon the behaviours of others. This flexibility is a key component of many hypothesized mechanisms favouring the evolution of cooperative behaviour. However, evidence shows that cooperative behaviours are often less flexible than expected and that, in many species, individuals show consistent differences in the amount and type of cooperative and non-cooperative behaviours displayed. This phenomenon is known as ‘animal personality’ or a ‘behavioural syndrome’. Animal personality is evolutionarily relevant, as it typically shows heritable variation and can entail fitness consequences, and hence, is subject to evolutionary change. Here, we review the empirical evidence for individual variation in cooperative behaviour across taxa, we examine the evolutionary processes that have been invoked to explain the existence of individual variation in cooperative behaviour and we discuss the consequences of consistent individual differences on the evolutionary stability of cooperation. We highlight that consistent individual variation in cooperativeness can both stabilize or disrupt cooperation in populations. We conclude that recognizing the existence of consistent individual differences in cooperativeness is essential for an understanding of the evolution and prevalence of cooperation.

Do Owners and Managers Really Differ?

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie P. Lorenz ◽  
John E. Gamble ◽  
David L. Turnipseed ◽  
K. Mark Weaver
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Intangible Resources ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Determinants Of Satisfaction ◽  
Term Performance

This study examines the determinants of satisfaction with overall firm performance by owner- and non-owner-managers of SMEs. It is expected that owners of SMEs will develop contracts for non-owner-managers or monitoring practices that align the interests of agents and principals. As a result of interest alignment, the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation, views on intangible resources, focus on performance metrics and satisfaction with overall financial performance should be similar for owner- and non-owner-managers of SMEs. The study results show differences in risk-taking behaviour and views of resource development between owner-managers and non-owner-managers. However, a strong relationship between short-term performance and overall satisfaction with financial performance existed in the sample of both owner-managers and non-owner-managers.

scholarly journals Psychoactive pollution suppresses individual differences in fish behaviour

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1944) ◽  
pp. 20202294
Author(s):  
Giovanni Polverino ◽  
Jake M. Martin ◽  
Michael G. Bertram ◽  
Vrishin R. Soman ◽  
Hung Tan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Environmental Contamination ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Fish Behaviour ◽  
Adaptive Potential ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Low Concentrations

Environmental contamination by pharmaceuticals is global, substantially altering crucial behaviours in animals and impacting on their reproduction and survival. A key question is whether the consequences of these pollutants extend beyond mean behavioural changes, restraining differences in behaviour between individuals. In a controlled, two-year, multigenerational experiment with independent mesocosm populations, we exposed guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ) to environmentally realistic levels of the ubiquitous pollutant fluoxetine (Prozac). Fish (unexposed: n = 59, low fluoxetine: n = 57, high fluoxetine: n = 58) were repeatedly assayed on four separate occasions for activity and risk-taking behaviour. Fluoxetine homogenized individuals' activity, with individual variation in populations exposed to even low concentrations falling to less than half that in unexposed populations. To understand the proximate mechanism underlying these changes, we tested the relative contribution of variation within and between individuals to the overall decline in individual variation. We found strong evidence that fluoxetine erodes variation in activity between but not within individuals, revealing the hidden consequences of a ubiquitous contaminant on phenotypic variation in fish—likely to impair adaptive potential to environmental change.

scholarly journals Among-individual variation of risk-taking behaviour in group and solitary context is uncorrelated but independently repeatable in a juvenile Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) aquaculture strain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joris Philip ◽  
Marion Dellinger ◽  
David Benhaïm
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Selective Breeding ◽  
Salvelinus Alpinus ◽  
Arctic Charr ◽  
Nordic Country ◽  
Fish Welfare ◽  
Growth Performances ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Behavioural Trait

AbstractBehavioural traits have been shown to have implications in fish welfare and growth performances in aquaculture. If several studies have demonstrated the existence of repeatable and heritable behavioural traits (i.e., animal personality), the methodology to assess personality in fishes is often carried out in solitary context, which appears to somewhat limit their use from a selective breeding perspective because these tests are too time consuming. To address this drawback, group-based tests have been developed. In Nordic country, Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) is widely used in aquaculture, but no selection effort on behavioural traits has yet been carried out. Specifically, in this study we examined if risk-taking behaviour was repeatable and correlated in group and solitary context and if the early influences of physical environment affect the among-individual variation of behavioural trait across time in order to verify whether a group risk-taking test could be used as a selective breeding tool. Here, we found that in both contexts and treatments, the risk-taking behaviour was repeatable across a short period of 6 days. However, no cross-context consistency was found between group and solitary, which indicates that Arctic charr express different behavioural trait in group and solitary.

scholarly journals Different preference functions act in unison: mate choice and risk-taking behaviour in the Atlantic molly (Poecilia mexicana)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Sommer-Trembo ◽  
Michael Schreier ◽  
Martin Plath
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Personality Type ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Test Subject ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Poecilia Mexicana ◽  
Livebearing Fish

AbstractConsistent individual differences in behaviour (animal personality) are widespread throughout the Animal Kingdom. This includes variation in risk-taking versus risk-averse behavioural tendencies. Variation in several personality dimensions is associated with distinct fitness consequences and thus, may become a target of natural and/or sexual selection. However, the link between animal personality and mate choice—as a major component of sexual selection—remains understudied. We asked (1) whether females and males of the livebearing fish Poecilia mexicana prefer risk-taking mating partners (directional mating preference), (2) or if their preferences are dependent on the choosing individual’s own personality type (assortative mating). We characterized each test subject for its risk-taking behaviour, assessed as the time to emerge from shelter and enter an unknown area. In dichotomous association preference tests, we offered two potential mating partners that differed in risk-taking behaviour but were matched for other phenotypic traits (body size, shape, and colouration). Females, but not males, exhibited a strong directional preference for risk-taking over risk-averse mating partners. At the same time, the strength of females’ preferences correlated positively with their own risk-taking scores. Our study is the first to demonstrate that a strong overall preference for risk-taking mating partners does not preclude effects of choosing individuals’ own personality type on (subtle) individual variation in mating preferences. More generally, two different preferences functions appear to interact to determine the outcome of individual mate choice decisions.

scholarly journals The Importance of Chimpanzee Personality Research to Understanding Processes Associated with Human Mental Health

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Latzman ◽  
Lindsey M. Green ◽  
Mary A. Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Pan Troglodytes ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Personality Pathology ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Model Species ◽  
Personality Research ◽  
Current Review ◽  
Research Domain

Personality research seeks to identify and understand underlying process associated with individual differences in dispositional traits. In humans, individual variation across personality traits have been found to associate with mental health outcomes often times via common neurobiological processes. This shared neurobiological basis demonstrates the value of personality research in elucidating processes associated with mental disorders. More recently, a burgeoning animal personality literature has made efforts to elucidate neurobiological and environmental mechanisms associated with variation in personality—within this literature, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) represent the most promising model species with respect to optimal translational value to humans. The purpose of the current paper was thus to review the chimpanzee personality literature, with particular emphasis on the organizational, genetic, environmental, and neuroscientific basis of individual variation in personality. We further present a primate-translational operationalization of personality pathology underscoring the notion that personality pathology is rooted within basic dispositions, with evidence of genetic and environmental contributions to such tendencies. Finally, benefits with regard to animal welfare and the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Initiative, as well as roadblocks associated with curtailment of research involving captive chimpanzees are reviewed. In sum, the current review highlights the importance of translational personality research with chimpanzees as an unparalleled animal model for investigations into the pathophysiology of human mental health.

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