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Being a standout has its benefits, study shows
October 16, 2009ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Standing out in a crowd is better than blending in, at least if you're a paper wasp in a colony where fights between nest-mates determine social status.
That's the conclusion of a study by University of Michigan researchers published online this week in the journal Evolution.
"It's good to be different, to wear a nametag advertising your identity," said graduate student Michael Sheehan, who collaborated on the research with evolutionary biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts.
In earlier research, Tibbetts showed that paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus) recognize individuals by variations in their facial markings and that they behave more aggressively toward wasps with unfamiliar faces. Then last year, Sheehan and Tibbetts published a paper in Current Biology demonstrating that these wasps have surprisingly long memories and base their behavior on what they remember of previous social interactions with other wasps.
That's important in a species like P. fuscatus, in which multiple queens establish communal nests and raise offspring cooperatively, but also compete to form a linear dominance hierarchy. Remembering who they've already bested-and been bested by-keeps individuals from wasting energy on repeated aggressive encounters and presumably promotes colony stability by reducing friction.
In the latest work, Sheehan and Tibbetts wanted to see if individual wasps benefit not only by being able to recognize others, but by being recognizable themselves. Most previous studies of individual recognition-which is found not only in social wasps, but also in a variety of creatures including lobsters, salamanders, penguins and people-have focused only on the presence or absence of the ability in a given species. But little research has centered on the individual being recognized.
To investigate the pros and cons of being a standout, the researchers altered the wasps' facial patterns and set up groups of four unrelated wasp queens, in which three wasps looked alike and one looked distinctively different from the others. The experimenters then videotaped encounters among the wasps and played the tapes back, recording and scoring all acts of aggression.
They found that distinctively-marked wasps were less likely to be the targets of aggression than were look-alike wasps.
"Given that receiving aggression is costly, in terms of injury or energy expenditure, these results indicate that being distinctive is beneficial," Sheehan said.
The benefits of being recognizable may extend beyond wasp societies, Tibbetts said. "For example, have you ever wondered why there is so much variation in human facial features? One possibility is that a mechanism similar to that found in wasps is operating in humans: those with unusual faces, who are easy to identify, may do better than those with more similar faces. Over evolutionary time, this would result in the huge variation in human faces that we see today."
Next, the researchers want to investigate the possible genetic underpinnings of the wasps' naturally occurring facial variations and to look more closely at how whole wasp societies benefit by being made up of distinctive, easily-recognized members.
"We've shown the benefit to an individual of being different," Sheehan said. "Now we want to explore how a group benefits from diversity."
University of Michigan
In earlier research, Tibbetts showed that paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus) recognize individuals by variations in their facial markings and that they behave more aggressively toward wasps with unfamiliar faces. Then last year, Sheehan and Tibbetts published a paper in Current Biology demonstrating that these wasps have surprisingly long memories and base their behavior on what they remember of previous social interactions with other wasps.
That's important in a species like P. fuscatus, in which multiple queens establish communal nests and raise offspring cooperatively, but also compete to form a linear dominance hierarchy. Remembering who they've already bested-and been bested by-keeps individuals from wasting energy on repeated aggressive encounters and presumably promotes colony stability by reducing friction.
In the latest work, Sheehan and Tibbetts wanted to see if individual wasps benefit not only by being able to recognize others, but by being recognizable themselves. Most previous studies of individual recognition-which is found not only in social wasps, but also in a variety of creatures including lobsters, salamanders, penguins and people-have focused only on the presence or absence of the ability in a given species. But little research has centered on the individual being recognized.
To investigate the pros and cons of being a standout, the researchers altered the wasps' facial patterns and set up groups of four unrelated wasp queens, in which three wasps looked alike and one looked distinctively different from the others. The experimenters then videotaped encounters among the wasps and played the tapes back, recording and scoring all acts of aggression.
They found that distinctively-marked wasps were less likely to be the targets of aggression than were look-alike wasps.
"Given that receiving aggression is costly, in terms of injury or energy expenditure, these results indicate that being distinctive is beneficial," Sheehan said.
The benefits of being recognizable may extend beyond wasp societies, Tibbetts said. "For example, have you ever wondered why there is so much variation in human facial features? One possibility is that a mechanism similar to that found in wasps is operating in humans: those with unusual faces, who are easy to identify, may do better than those with more similar faces. Over evolutionary time, this would result in the huge variation in human faces that we see today."
Next, the researchers want to investigate the possible genetic underpinnings of the wasps' naturally occurring facial variations and to look more closely at how whole wasp societies benefit by being made up of distinctive, easily-recognized members.
"We've shown the benefit to an individual of being different," Sheehan said. "Now we want to explore how a group benefits from diversity."
University of Michigan
Social Status Current Events and Social Status News RSSFlips, flops and cartwheels
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New research links social stress to harmful fat deposits, heart disease
A new study done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine shows that social stress could be an important precursor to heart disease by causing the body to deposit more fat in the abdominal cavity, speeding the harmful buildup of plaque in blood vessels, a stepping stone to the number one cause of death in the world.
USC study finds links between obesity and adolescents' social networks
Researchers from the Institute of Prevention Research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) found in a recent study that overweight youth were twice as likely to have overweight friends.
Competition May Be Reason For Bigger Brain
For the past 2 million years, the size of the human brain has tripled, growing much faster than other mammals. Examining the reasons for human brain expansion, University of Missouri researchers studied three common hypotheses for brain growth: climate change, ecological demands and social competition.
A venomous tale: Vipers shape lizards' tail-shedding abilities
University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues have answered a question that has puzzled biologists for more than a century: What is the main factor that determines a lizard's ability to shed its tail when predators attack?
Education slowing AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
Increased schooling across sub-Saharan Africa may be lowering new HIV infections among younger adults, according to sociologists, suggesting a shift in a decades-long trend where formal education is considered an AIDS risk factor.
Bizarre bird behavior predicted by game theory
A team of scientists, led by the University of Exeter, has used game theory to explain the bizarre behaviour of a group of ravens. Juvenile birds from a roost in North Wales have been observed adopting the unusual strategy of foraging for food in 'gangs'.
Peer victimization in middle and high school predicts sexual behavior among adolescents
Peer victimization during middle and high school may be an important indicator of an individual's sexual behavior later in life. These are the findings of Binghamton University researchers Andrew C. Gallup, Daniel T. O'Brien and David Sloan Wilson, and University at Albany researcher Daniel D. White.
Group Bragging Betrays Insecurity, Study Finds
From partisans at a political rally to fans at a football game, groups that engage in pompous displays of collective pride may be trying to mask insecurity and a low social status, suggests new research led by University of California, Davis, psychologists.
Despite 'peacenik' reputation, bonobos hunt and eat other primates too
Unlike the male-dominated societies of their chimpanzee relatives, bonobo society-in which females enjoy a higher social status than males-has a "make-love-not-war" kind of image.
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