Life-history trade-offs favour the evolution of animal personalities
Abstract
In recent years evidence has been accumulating that personalities are not only found in humans but also in a wide range of other animal species. Individuals differ consistently in their behavioural tendencies and the behaviour in one context is correlated with the behaviour in multiple other contexts. From an adaptive perspective, the evolution of animal personalities is still a mystery, because a more flexible structure of behaviour should provide a selective advantage. Accordingly, many researchers view personalities as resulting from constraints imposed by the architecture of behaviour (but see ref. 12). In contrast, we show here that animal personalities can be given an adaptive explanation. Our argument is based on the insight that the trade-off between current and future reproduction often results in polymorphic populations in which some individuals put more emphasis on future fitness returns than others. Life-history theory predicts that such differences in fitness expectations should result in systematic differences in risk-taking behaviour. Individuals with high future expectations (who have much to lose) should be more risk-averse than individuals with low expectations. This applies to all kinds of risky situations, so individuals should consistently differ in their behaviour. By means of an evolutionary model we demonstrate that this basic principle results in the evolution of animal personalities. It simultaneously explains the coexistence of behavioural types, the consistency of behaviour through time and the structure of behavioural correlations across contexts. Moreover, it explains the common finding that explorative behaviour and risk-related traits like boldness and aggressiveness are common characteristics of animal personalities.
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The choice of a specific LH strategy affects a broad range of traits and behaviors beyond growth and reproduction.
“However, it is easy to see that the choice of a specific strategy will affect a much broader range of traits and behaviors (Belsky et al., 1991; Figueredo et al., 2004, 2006; Wolf et al., 2007).”
From The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity (2011) · cites this paper as Wolf et al., 2007
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“( iv ) How do different individual phenotypes coexist within a population (Wolf et al ., 2007; Dingemanse & Wolf, 2010; Costa-Pereira et al ., 2018)?”
InfluentialSelf-citation
- Authors
- Wolf, M., van Doorn, G. S., Leimar, O., & Weissing, F. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Weissing, Franz J.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2007-05
- Volume
- 447
- Issue
- 7144
- Pages
- 581-584
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2052214162
- Cited by
- 1,427
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 64 · 2022: 95 · 2021: 72 · 2020: 169 · 2019: 85 · 2018: 86 · 2017: 106 · 2016: 71 · 2015: 107 · 2014: 85 · 2013: 77 · 2012: 67
- FWCI
- 54.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Keywords
- animal personality, life-history trade-offs, risk-taking, boldness, risk aversion, reproductive trade-offs, behavioral consistency, behavioural polymorphism, evolution of behavior, exploratory behavior, aggression
- MeSH terms
- Aggression, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Biological Evolution, Exploratory Behavior, Models, Biological, Personality, Predatory Behavior, Reproduction, Risk-Taking, Selection, Genetic
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