Evolutionary and ecological approaches to the study of personality

Abstract

This introduction to the themed issue on Evolutionary and ecological approaches to the study of personality provides an overview of conceptual, theoretical and methodological progress in research on animal personalities over the last decade, and places the contributions to this volume in context. The issue has three main goals. First, we aimed to bring together theoreticians to contribute to the development of models providing adaptive explanations for animal personality that could guide empiricists, and stimulate exchange of ideas between the two groups of researchers. Second, we aimed to stimulate cross-fertilization between different scientific fields that study personality, namely behavioural ecology, psychology, genomics, quantitative genetics, neuroendocrinology and developmental biology. Third, we aimed to foster the application of an evolutionary framework to the study of personality.

Consistent individual differences in human social learning strategies

“…41) can lead to the evolutionary emergence of consistent individual variation in behaviour. More specific models based on this theoretical framework predict the coexistence of alternative life history strategies 42,43 ; the coexistence of individuals differing strongly in responsiveness and social sensitivity 44,45 ; and the coexistence of different communication strategies 46 . These results may serve as a useful starting point for understanding the consistent individual differences in social learning strategies observed in this study.…”

Why Do Some Fish Fight More than Others?

“…These questions are currently of considerable research interest (Réale et al 2010), and there is a growing body of relevant empirical data for particular species. There are also a number of explanatory frameworks and models showing in general terms the selective forces under which these phenomena might have arisen (Dingemanse and Wolf 2010).…”

Are personality differences in a small iteroparous mammal maintained by a life-history trade-off?

“…animal personality) has been widely recognized [1 -4], because personality traits are ubiquitous, moderately heritable [5,6] and have fitness consequences [7,8]. Several theoretical models have been proposed to explain the evolution and maintenance of animal personality either in a constraint or an adaptive framework (reviewed in [9,10]), which are mainly supported qualitatively [11 -13] or by simulations and game-theoretical approaches [14 -17]. Empirical attempts to test contrasting predictions of the major models are still scarce, leaving a gap between theoretical and empirical personality research [10].…”