Project Details
Projekt
The Role of Individual Differences in Collective Behaviour
Applicant
Ralf Kurvers, Ph.D.
Subject Area
Sensory and Behavioural Biology
Term
from 2015 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 278271590
Bird flocks, fish schools and insect swarms provide some of the most spectacular phenomena in the natural world. The formation, behaviour and dispersal of groups are ultimately the consequence of the behaviour of individuals, but linking individual to collective behaviour is still a major challenge. One aspect that is particularly poorly understood is how individual differences affect collective behaviour. Here I therefore propose to study the role of individual differences for group formation and group functioning by focusing on two key aspects in which individuals can differ: preferences and performances. I will study preferences in the context of individual movement preferences, and performances in the context of sound localization performances. In both contexts, I will be guided by three key research questions. First, how do individual differences affect group fission and fusion events? Second, how do individual differences affect the behavioural rules that individuals use in groups and how do these rules, in turn, affect collective processes? And finally, how does the influence of individual behaviour on collective processes depend on key socio-ecological parameters, like group size or environmental complexity? I will combine an experimental approach, using human groups with a theoretical approach, using optimality models and model simulations. In the experiments, I will first determine individual differences by testing individuals alone. Then, I will combine individuals in preselected groups to study how individual differences affect collective behaviour. Subsequently, I allow individuals to self-select their own group to study how individual differences affect group formation and self-organization processes. I will make use of high-resolution GPS to study in detail the mechanisms that link individual and collective behaviour as well as the resulting collective outcomes. This research will provide fundamental novel insights in how individual differences in preferences and performances drive collective processes, like human crowd behaviour and collective cognition.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Netherlands, United Kingdom
