The keystone individual concept: an ecological and evolutionary overview

Modlmeier, Andreas P.; Keiser, Carl N.; Watters, Jason V.; Sih, Andrew; Pruitt, Jonathan N.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.12.020

Cited by 186 publications

(186 citation statements)

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“…However, the effects of misinformation merely depend on the phenotypes (and the social influence) of the individuals that initially harbour it. In S. dumicola, as in some other systems [14,33], individuals' probability of emerging as a keystone individual is tightly linked with their personality type [31,34]. This provides further rationale for considering individual variation in personality in any complex society.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Movement leaders [15,16], knowledgeable tutors [17,18], disease super-spreaders [19,20], hyperaggressive males [21] and social arbitrators [22,23] represent just some of the ways in which one or a few individuals can influence entire societies. Interestingly, evidence from dozens of field studies indicates that the effects of keystone individuals on group success can range from beneficial to disastrous, depending on numerous circumstances [14]. Thus, the same group members that are invaluable in one context can prove problematic in another.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This relationship is well recognized in behavioural ecology [11][12][13]. Yet the effects of group composition can often be subtle, non-additive and counterintuitive, especially in societies harbouring keystone individuals, which are defined as individuals that exhibit a disproportionately large influence over groups' collective behaviour or success [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Boldness is defined as an individual's tendency to place themselves in a threatening situation [32], which in S. dumicola is expressed as a short latency to resume normal activity after being presented with an aversive stimulus. Links between personality and probability of becoming keystone individuals are fairly common [14,33]. In S. dumicola, the link between boldness and keystone-ness is particularly strong (R 2 ¼ 0.36-0.67) [30,31]: simply adding one very bold individual to a colony increases the number of attackers that respond to live prey by 300-600% and increases the mass gained by societies as a whole by 300%, and these effects linger for weeks after a keystone individual's removal [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

et al. 2016

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Many animal societies rely on highly influential keystone individuals for proper functioning. When information quality is important for group success, such keystone individuals have the potential to diminish group performance if they possess inaccurate information. Here, we test whether information quality (accurate or inaccurate) influences collective outcomes when keystone individuals are the first to acquire it. We trained keystone or generic individuals to attack or avoid novel stimuli and implanted these trained individuals within groups of naive colony-mates. We subsequently tracked how quickly groups learned about their environment in situations that matched (accurate information) or mismatched (inaccurate information) the training of the trained individual. We found that colonies with just one accurately informed individual were quicker to learn to attack a novel prey stimulus than colonies with no informed individuals. However, this effect was no more pronounced when the informed individual was a keystone individual. In contrast, keystones with inaccurate information had larger effects than generic individuals with identical information: groups containing keystones with inaccurate information took longer to learn to attack/avoid prey/predator stimuli and gained less weight than groups harbouring generic individuals with identical information. Our results convey that misinformed keystone individuals can become points of vulnerability for their societies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

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“…Personality types have been shown to differ in the strength and distribution of their interactions with group members and to assort with others based on personality (e.g., Pike et al, 2008;Croft et al, 2009;Aplin et al, 2013). Some personality types can occupy prominent or influential network positions, thereby wielding disproportionate influence over network dynamics compared to other group members (Flack et al, 2006;Modlmeier, Keiser, et al, 2014).…”

Section: Animal Personalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social dynamics, network structure, and information diffusion in fish shoals.

Hasenjager¹

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for always ensuring my library was well-stocked, and for fostering my enduring love of the natural world. Animal populations are often highly structured, with individuals differing in terms of whom they interact with and how frequently they do so. The resulting pattern of relationships constitutes a population's social network. In this dissertation, I examine how environmental variation can shape social networks and influence information flow within them. In Chapter I, I review the history of social network analysis in animal behavior research, and discuss recent insights generated by network approaches in behavioral ecology. I focus on the fields of: social learning, collective behavior, animal personalities, and cooperation. Animal network studies are often criticized for a lack of replication at the network level and an over-reliance on descriptive approaches in lieu of hypothesis testing. Small, shoaling fish may provide a means to address these concerns, as manipulative experiments can be conducted on replicate social groups under captive conditions. Chapters III-V examine the impacts of environmental variation on the social networks of Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) shoals, the social dynamics from which they emerge, and information diffusion within them. In the experiments described in Chapter III, I manipulated shoal composition in terms of within-group familiarity.Mixed shoals of familiar and unfamiliar fish exhibited greater homogeneity in network vi structure relative to other groups, which likely contributed to the rapid diffusion of foraging information observed within them. In the experiments discussed in Chapter IV, Imanipulated the within-shoal mixture of personality types. In addition to impacting frequencies of partner switching and patterns of phenotypic assortment, individual-and group-level personality variation had strong effects on the initial acquisition of novel foraging information and the speed of its transmission through a group. In the experiments in Chapter V, I manipulated the ambient predation risk perceived by groups.High-risk conditions were associated with shifts in network structure consistent with attempts to minimize predation risk. High ambient risk also impeded the acquisition and subsequent transmission of foraging information, likely due to heightened neophobia and/or an increase in the perceived costs of personal sampling. I conclude in Chapter VI by considering the broader implications of my work and highlighting promising avenues for future research.vii

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Collective Decision Making

Fuertbauer

2017

The International Encyclopedia of Primatology

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Any social unit cannot exist and persist without some form of collective decision making. Collective decisions result from an evaluation of possible options, during which a group reaches a single choice. Swarms, shoals, flocks, herds, and troops of animals make such collective decisions on a daily basis, which have important fitness consequences for all group members. Consequently, the topic of collective decision making has attracted much attention from biologists. Primates are particularly interesting to study from this perspective since they typically live in small, socially complex groups that are characterized by strong conflicts of interest and advanced communication skills. Despite these complexities, there is growing evidence that individuals in primate groups primarily rely upon simple and local rules of interaction, that is rules‐of‐thumb or heuristics, to make fast and accurate collective decisions.

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The keystone individual concept: an ecological and evolutionary overview

Cited by 186 publications

References 70 publications

The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

The Achilles' heel hypothesis: misinformed keystone individuals impair collective learning and reduce group success

Social dynamics, network structure, and information diffusion in fish shoals.

Collective Decision Making

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