title: Artificial environments and the study of 'adaptive' personalities.
abstract: Research on the adaptive nature of animal personality is blooming. We detail here the common practice of conducting such studies in the laboratory, inherent shortcomings of this approach when addressing ecological or evolutionary questions, and alternative strategies that might be applied to firmly place personality research in evolutionary biology.
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology, Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany. Electronic address: niemela@bio.lmu.de.
authors.forename: Petri T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Niemelä
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology, Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany; Evolutionary Ecology of Variation Group, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany. Electronic address: ndingemanse@orn.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Niels J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Dingemanse
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004777:Environment; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D010551:Personality; D012106:Research
keywords: adaptive evolution; cryptic genetic variation; gene-environment interaction; personality; reaction norm