Criteria for acceptable studies of animal personality and behavioural syndromes

Niels J. Dingemanse; Jonathan Wright

doi:10.1111/eth.13082

Parasitism and the evolutionary ecology of animal personality

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2010.0182 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 365 (1560) ◽

pp. 4077-4088 ◽

Cited By ~ 162

Author(s):

Iain Barber ◽

Niels J. Dingemanse

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Evolutionary Ecology ◽

Resource Competition ◽

Ecological Factors ◽

Animal Personality ◽

Behavioural Syndromes ◽

Parasite Infections ◽

Animal Personalities ◽

Host Behaviour

The ecological factors responsible for the evolution of individual differences in animal personality (consistent individual differences in the same behaviour across time and contexts) are currently the subject of intense debate. A limited number of ecological factors have been investigated to date, with most attention focusing on the roles of resource competition and predation. We suggest here that parasitism may play a potentially important, but largely overlooked, role in the evolution of animal personalities. We identify two major routes by which parasites might influence the evolution of animal personality. First, because the risk of acquiring parasites can be influenced by an individual's behavioural type, local parasite regimes may impose selection on personality traits and behavioural syndromes (correlations between personality traits). Second, because parasite infections have consequences for aspects of host ‘state’, parasites might induce the evolution of individual differences in certain types of host behaviour in populations with endemic infections. Also, because infection often leads to specific changes in axes of personality, parasite infections have the potential to decouple behavioural syndromes. Host–parasite systems therefore provide researchers with valuable tools to study personality variation and behavioural syndromes from a proximate and ultimate perspective.

Animal personality as a cause and consequence of contest behaviour

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2014.1007 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 20141007 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

Mark Briffa ◽

Lynne U. Sneddon ◽

Alastair J. Wilson

Keyword(s):

Individual Variation ◽

Animal Personality ◽

Limited Resources ◽

Physiological Data ◽

Endocrine Control ◽

Proximate Mechanisms ◽

Behavioural Syndromes ◽

Contest Behaviour ◽

Animal Personalities ◽

Plastic Responses

We review the evidence for a link between consistent among-individual variation in behaviour (animal personality) and the ability to win contests over limited resources. Explorative and bold behaviours often covary with contest behaviour and outcome, although there is evidence that the structure of these ‘behavioural syndromes' can change across situations. Aggression itself is typically repeatable, but also subject to high within-individual variation as a consequence of plastic responses to previous fight outcomes and opponent traits. Common proximate mechanisms (gene expression, endocrine control and metabolic rates) may underpin variation in both contest behaviour and general personality traits. Given the theoretical links between the evolution of fighting and of personality, we suggest that longitudinal studies of contest behaviour, combining behavioural and physiological data, would be a useful context for the study of animal personalities.

Animal personality and behavioural syndromes

Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms ◽

10.1007/978-3-642-02624-9_19 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 587-621 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Ralph Bergmüller

Keyword(s):

Animal Personality ◽

Behavioural Syndromes

Neurobiology and Genetics of Behavioural Syndromes of Alzheimers Disease

Current Alzheimer Research ◽

10.2174/1567205043332180 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 135-142 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Stephen McIlroy ◽

David Craig

Keyword(s):

Alzheimers Disease ◽

Behavioural Syndromes

The development of animal personality across ontogeny: a cross-species review

Animal Behaviour ◽

10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.01.003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 173 ◽

pp. 137-144

Author(s):

Doreen Cabrera ◽

Joshua R. Nilsson ◽

Blaine D. Griffen

Keyword(s):

Animal Personality

Developmental perspectives on personality: implications for ecological and evolutionary studies of individual differences

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2010.0218 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 365 (1560) ◽

pp. 4029-4041 ◽

Cited By ~ 166

Author(s):

Judy A. Stamps ◽

Ton G. G. Groothuis

Keyword(s):

Developmental Plasticity ◽

Niche Construction ◽

Prior Experience ◽

Life Stage ◽

Animal Personality ◽

Temporal Consistency ◽

Developmental Processes ◽

Wide Range ◽

Evolutionary Studies ◽

Research Programmes

Developmental processes can have major impacts on the correlations in behaviour across contexts (contextual generality) and across time (temporal consistency) that are the hallmarks of animal personality. Personality can and does change: at any given age or life stage it is contingent upon a wide range of experiential factors that occurred earlier in life, from prior to conception through adulthood. We show how developmental reaction norms that describe the effects of prior experience on a given behaviour can be used to determine whether the effects of a given experience at a given age will affect contextual generality at a later age, and to illustrate how variation within individuals in developmental plasticity leads to variation in contextual generality across individuals as a function of experience. We also show why niche-picking and niche-construction, behavioural processes which allow individuals to affect their own developmental environment, can affect the contextual generality and the temporal consistency of personality. We conclude by discussing how an appreciation of developmental processes can alert behavioural ecologists studying animal personality to critical, untested assumptions that underlie their own research programmes, and outline situations in which a developmental perspective can improve studies of the functional significance and evolution of animal personality.

Defining behavioural syndromes and the role of ‘syndrome deviation’ in understanding their evolution

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology ◽

10.1007/s00265-012-1416-2 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 66 (11) ◽

pp. 1543-1548 ◽

Cited By ~ 126

Author(s):

Niels J. Dingemanse ◽

Ned A. Dochtermann ◽

Shinichi Nakagawa

Keyword(s):

Behavioural Syndromes ◽

Syndrome Deviation

An assessment of behavioural syndromes in rangeland-raised beef cattle

Applied Animal Behaviour Science ◽

10.1016/j.applanim.2012.04.005 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 139 (3-4) ◽

pp. 183-194 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Robert L. Wesley ◽

Andrés F. Cibils ◽

J. Travis Mulliniks ◽

Emily R. Pollak ◽

Mark K. Petersen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Beef Cattle ◽

Behavioural Syndromes

Behavioural syndromes and their fitness consequences in a socially polymorphic spider, Anelosimus studiosus

Animal Behaviour ◽

10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.05.009 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 76 (3) ◽

pp. 871-879 ◽

Cited By ~ 132

Author(s):

Jonathan N. Pruitt ◽

Susan E. Riechert ◽

Thomas C. Jones

Keyword(s):

Behavioural Syndromes ◽

Fitness Consequences

Ambiguous terminology in animal personality research: a self-report questionnaire and a systematic review

10.32942/osf.io/9srpy ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar ◽

Maria Moiron ◽

Petri Toivo Niemelä

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Animal Personality ◽

Self Report ◽

Behavioural Ecology ◽

Biological Organization ◽

Personality Research ◽

Conceptual Definition ◽

Multiple Levels ◽

Definition Of ◽

Key Questions

Whether animal personality studies provide insights of broader evolutionary and ecological relevance to behavioural ecology is frequently questioned. One source of controversy is the vast, but often vague conceptual terminology used. From a statistical perspective, animal personality is defined as repeatable among-individual variance in behaviour; however, numerous conceptual definitions of animal personality exist. Here, we performed a 1) self-report questionnaire and 2) systematic literature review to quantify how researchers interpret conceptual and statistical definitions commonly used in animal personality research. We also investigated whether results from the questionnaire agree with those of the literature review. Among the 430 self-reported researchers that participated in our questionnaire, we observed discrepancies in key questions such as the conceptual definition of animal personality or the interpretation of repeatability. Our literature review generally confirmed the global patterns revealed by the questionnaire. Overall, we identified common disagreements in animal personality research and discussed potential solutions. We advocate for the usage of statistically-oriented terminology because conceptual definitions can seemingly be interpreted at multiple levels of biological organization. We expect that adopting such statistically-oriented terminology will, at least partly, avoid the confusion generated by the label “animal personality”, and ultimately help to clarify and move the field forward.