title: Consensus and experience trump leadership, suppressing individual personality during social foraging.
abstract: Whether individual behavior in social settings correlates with behavior when individuals are alone is a fundamental question in collective behavior. However, evidence for whether behavior correlates across asocial and social settings is mixed, and no study has linked observed trends with underlying mechanisms. Consistent differences between individuals in boldness, which describes willingness to accept reward over risk, are likely to be under strong selection pressure. By testing three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in a risky foraging task alone and repeatedly in shoals, we demonstrate that the expression of boldness in groups is context-specific. Whereas personality is repeatable in a low-risk behavior (leaving a refuge), the collectively made consensus decision to then cross the arena outweighs leadership by bolder individuals, explaining the suppression of personality in this context. However, despite this social coordination, bolder individuals were still more likely to feed. Habituation and satiation over repeated trials degrade the effect of personality on leaving the refuge and also whether crossing the arena is a collective decision. The suppression of personality in groups suggests that individual risk-taking tendency may rarely represent actual risk in social settings, with implications for the evolution and ecology of personality variation.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, U.K.
authors.forename: Nicholas D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, U.K.
authors.forename: Sean A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7400-005X
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rands
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, U.K.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, U.K.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2390-5593
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Elder
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, U.K.
authors.forename: Christos C
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9739-889X
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Ioannou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D012306:Risk; D023701:Smegmamorpha / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Consensus; boldness; conformity; coordination; leadership; personality; predation risk; refuge use; self-organization