Wendt, Stephanie and Strunk, Kim S. and Heinze, Juergen and Roider, Andreas and Czaczkes, Tomer J. (2019) Positive and negative incentive contrasts lead to relative value perception in ants. ELIFE, 8: e45450. ISSN 2050-084X,
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Humans usually assess things not according to their absolute value, but relative to reference points - a main tenant of Prospect Theory. For example, people rate a new salary relative to previous salaries and salaries of their peers, rather than absolute income. We demonstrate a similar effect in an insect: ants expecting to find low-quality food showed higher acceptance of medium-quality food than ants expecting medium quality, and vice versa for high expectations. Further experiments demonstrate that these contrast effects arise from cognitive rather than mere sensory or pre-cognitive perceptual causes. Social information gained inside the nest can also serve as a reference point: the quality of food received from other ants affected the perceived value of food found later. Value judgement is a key element in decision making, and thus relative value perception strongly influences which option is chosen and ultimately how all animals make decisions.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | TRAIL PHEROMONES; REWARD MAGNITUDE; PROSPECT-THEORY; CAMPONOTUS-MUS; SELF-CONTROL; MATE CHOICE; EXPERIENCE; SHIFTS; NEOPHOBIA; BEHAVIOR; |
| Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics 500 Science > 570 Life sciences 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Business, Economics and Information Systems > Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre und Ökonometrie Business, Economics and Information Systems > Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre und Ökonometrie > Lehrstuhl für Mikroökonomik (Prof. Dr. Andreas Roider) Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heinze) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Apr 2020 09:11 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Apr 2020 09:11 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/26663 |
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