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Communication By Agonistic Displays: What Can Games Theory Contribute To Ethology ?

Communication By Agonistic Displays: What Can Games Theory Contribute To Ethology ? COMMUNICATION BY AGONISTIC DISPLAYS: WHAT CAN GAMES THEORY CONTRIBUTE TO ETHOLOGY ? by PETER G. CARYL 1) (Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.) (With 10 Figures) (Acc. 15-IX-1978) Is information about the probability of attack an important component of the message conveyed by an aggressive display ? The traditional ethological answer to this question has been "Yes, of course it is". In this paper I shall discuss the predictions stemming from a model which analyses display strategies in terms of games theory to show that the answer need not be "Of course", since this particular model predicts that such information should not be transferred by aggressive displays. In the second part of the paper, I re-analyse some classic ethological data on agonistic displays and show that the answer may not even be "Yes", since this data shows that information about the probability of attack is poorly encoded in the displays, and appears not to be used by the recipients. This conclusion contrasts with those of the original authors, and I suggest in this section of the paper that a more sophisticated analysis than that usually employed must be used if we are to establish that http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Behaviour Brill

Communication By Agonistic Displays: What Can Games Theory Contribute To Ethology ?

Caryl, Peter G.
Behaviour , Volume 68 (1-2): 136 – Jan 1, 1979
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1979 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0005-7959
eISSN
1568-539X
DOI
10.1163/156853979X00287
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

COMMUNICATION BY AGONISTIC DISPLAYS: WHAT CAN GAMES THEORY CONTRIBUTE TO ETHOLOGY ? by PETER G. CARYL 1) (Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.) (With 10 Figures) (Acc. 15-IX-1978) Is information about the probability of attack an important component of the message conveyed by an aggressive display ? The traditional ethological answer to this question has been "Yes, of course it is". In this paper I shall discuss the predictions stemming from a model which analyses display strategies in terms of games theory to show that the answer need not be "Of course", since this particular model predicts that such information should not be transferred by aggressive displays. In the second part of the paper, I re-analyse some classic ethological data on agonistic displays and show that the answer may not even be "Yes", since this data shows that information about the probability of attack is poorly encoded in the displays, and appears not to be used by the recipients. This conclusion contrasts with those of the original authors, and I suggest in this section of the paper that a more sophisticated analysis than that usually employed must be used if we are to establish that

Journal

Behaviour – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1979

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