Effective leadership and decision-making in animal groups on the move
Abstract
For animals that forage or travel in groups, making movement decisions often depends on social interactions among group members. However, in many cases, few individuals have pertinent information, such as knowledge about the location of a food source, or of a migration route. Using a simple model we show how information can be transferred within groups both without signalling and when group members do not know which individuals, if any, have information. We reveal that the larger the group the smaller the proportion of informed individuals needed to guide the group, and that only a very small proportion of informed individuals is required to achieve great accuracy. We also demonstrate how groups can make consensus decisions, even though informed individuals do not know whether they are in a majority or minority, how the quality of their information compares with that of others, or even whether there are any other informed individuals. Our model provides new insights into the mechanisms of effective leadership and decision-making in biological systems.
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“Second, unconfident people tend to increase their own confidence after interacting with a very confident person, creating a basin of attraction around that person’s opinion [38], [39].”
From Social Influence and the Collective Dynamics of Opinion Formation (2013) · cites this paper as [38]
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- Authors
- Couzin, I. D., Krause, J., Franks, N. R., & Levin, S. A.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- University of Leeds (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Couzin, Iain D.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2005-02
- Volume
- 433
- Issue
- 7025
- Pages
- 513-516
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1975318518
- Cited by
- 2,753
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 122 · 2025: 129 · 2024: 120 · 2023: 118 · 2022: 140 · 2021: 146 · 2020: 158 · 2019: 144 · 2018: 139 · 2017: 140 · 2016: 154 · 2015: 165 · 2014: 154 · 2013: 172 · 2012: 159
- FWCI
- 76.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (GR/T11241/01)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Distributed Control Multi-Agent Systems
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Keywords
- group decision making, consensus building, animal group movement, group size, numerical simulation, fish schooling, jack mackerel, swarm robotics
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Communication, Behavior, Animal, Decision Making, Feeding Behavior, Group Processes, Leadership, Locomotion, Models, Biological, Population Density, Animal Migration
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