Sussex Letter with logos - Universität Regensburg

PRESS RELEASE – no embargo
Prestigious Emmy Noether research group to open at the University of Regensburg,
studying the economic behaviour of ants
On the 1st of April 2016 the Animal Comparative Economics lab – ACElab will open at
the University of Regensburg. The lab is funded by the prestigious Emmy Noether funding
programme, which aims to promote the best young scientists by allowing them to open
their own independent research group. Dr. Tomer Czaczkes, along with his team, will
spend the next five years studying the economic behaviour of animals, especially ants.
“Ants are wonderful animals for studying economic behaviour” says Dr. Czaczkes. “The
ants we study, which are the most common ant in Germany, communicate to each other by
putting dots of chemicals on the ground. When they find a resource they think is good, they
make lots of dots. When they judge the resource to be poor, they make few dots. This
dotting behaviour is a wonderful window into the mind of an animal.” To see a video of
this behaviour, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxgw74SizFY.
But what has this got to do with economic behaviour? Czaczkes wants to see whether ants
make the same “irrational” economic behaviours which humans do. For example, humans
value things depending on what they expect. If you expect nothing, but get €100, this is
great! If you expect €500, but get €100, this is bad. In both cases, though, you got the same
amount of money. “It looks like ants see the world of value in exactly the same way” says
Czaczkes. “When they expect poor food, but get average food, they make lots of dots. But
when they expect good food, but get average food, they make few dots. “Just like humans
- for ants, value seems to be relative.” Says Czaczkes.
The group will spend the next five years exploring how similar, or different, the economic
thinking of animals such as ants, flies, and woodlice are to humans. They hope insights
from their work will help us better understand why humans behave the way they do.
Information for Editors
Project title:
Ants as a model for economic decision-making: consumer psychology in a biological system
Ameisen als Modellorganismen für ökonomische Entscheidungen: Verbraucherpsychologie in einem
biologischen System
Institutes:
University of Regensburg, Germany
Contact:
[email protected]
See next page for a project summary in German and in English
Dr. Tomer J. Czaczkes
Animal Comparative
Economics lab
Biologie I
Universität Regensburg
Universitätstrasse 31
D-93053
Germany
T +49(0) 941 9432155
[email protected]
http://www.animal-economics.com/
Zusammenfassung – Deutch
Ameisen als Modellorganismen für ökonomische Entscheidungen:
Verbraucherpsychologie in einem biologischen System
Verbraucherentscheidungen spielen eine zentrale Rolle in der modernen
Gesellschaft. Die theoretische Grundlage der ökonomischen Entscheidungsfindung ist
gerade im Umbruch. Frühere Modelle gingen davon aus, dass dabei nur der absolute
Ertrag relevant ist. Die Prospect Theory (Neue Erwartungstheorie) basiert auf neueren
Erkenntnissen, wonach die Bewertung einer Option in Relation zu einem Referenzwert
erfolgt. Diese subjektiven Bewertungen sind darüber hinaus auch asymmetrisch, d.h.
Verluste werden über-, Gewinne unterbewertet. Dieses neue Modell der ökonomischen
Entscheidungsfindung liefert Erklärungen für viele vermeintlich irrationale
Entscheidungen.
Tiere stehen vor ähnlichen Problemen wie der Mensch: auch sie müssen Optionen
bewerten und sich für die beste entscheiden. Ähnlich wie einst in der
Verbraucherpsychologie, ging man auch bei Tieren stets davon aus, dass sich im Laufe der
Evolution Entscheidungen durchgesetzt haben, die den absoluten Wert einer Ressource
reflektieren. Meine Pilotstudien zeigen jedoch, dass Ameisen, genau wie Menschen,
Optionen in Bezug zu einem Referenzwert bewerten. Mehr noch, auch das
Bewertungsschema von Ameisen ist asymmetrisch - sie schätzen Verluste vergleichsweise
größer ein als Gewinne. Kurzum, das Verhalten der Ameisen entspricht exakt den
Vorhersagen der Prospect Theory.
Diese Erkenntnisse verdanken wir einem einzigartigen Verhaltensmuster der
Ameisen: dem Legen einer Pheromonspur. Die Stärke der Pheromonspur ist eine ehrliche
Aussage über den Wert, den eine Ameise einer Option beimisst. Quantifiziert man die
Pheromonablage, wird diese Bewertung messbar.
Im vorliegenden Projekt sollen in einer Reihe von Experimenten die Kerntheorien
der Verbraucherspychologie und -ökonomie an einem einfachen und
unvoreingenommenen System überprüft werden: an Ameisen.
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Invertebraten als Modellorganismen für Verbraucher heranzuziehen hat viele Vorteile:
Hypothesen können an Ameisen mit geringem Zeit- und Finanzmittelaufwand getestet
werden. Dabei werden die Fehlerquellen psychologischer Studien am Menschen eliminiert:
Menschen beantworten Fragen vor dem Hintergrund ihrer kulturellen Sozialisation; sie
versuchen die richtige Antwort oder die Absichten des Fragenden zu erraten. Ameisen tun
das nicht und liefern damit Einblick in die Hintergründe des Bewertungssystems von
Mensch und Ameise. Da das kollektive Verhalten einer Ameisenkolonie Einfluss auf ihre
Effizienz, ist es ermöglicht, die vermeintlich irrationalen Bewertungssysteme von Mensch
und Ameise auf ihre evolutive Angepasstheit hin zu testen.
Dieses interdisziplinäre Projekt vereint Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Psychologie und
Verhaltensökologie verknüpft neue Methoden und kann Erkenntnisse über die
grundlegenden Mechanismen der Entscheidungsfindung in Mensch und Tier liefern.
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Summary - English
Ants as a model for economic decision-making:
consumer psychology in a biological system
Economic decisions are very important for humans. Many animal decisions are ultimately
economic in nature. Understanding the preference for one option over another is key to
understanding decision making. Making value judgments underlies all preference- options
must be judged in terms of their values, and compared. The way in which value is judged
thus has huge repercussions for which options are ultimately chosen.
The theoretical approach to economic decision making is undergoing a paradigm shift, as a
new view of how options are valued has emerged among economists. Previous models
assumed that only the absolute payoff is relevant when making valuation. In the more
recent model, Prospect Theory, valuation is relative i.e., value is judged in terms of the
payoff relative to a reference point. Value judgment is also asymmetric, with losses
looming larger than gains. This new theory of economic decisions explains many cases of
human behaviour that standard economic models deemed irrational.
Animals face similar problems to humans: They too must constantly value options and
choose between them. Much like in early economic theory, animals are often assumed to
behave rationally. In reality, however, animals also display seemingly irrational behaviour
that is inconsistent with earlier economic theories. Pilot data suggests that ants, just like
humans, make value judgements relative to a reference point. Moreover, their value
judgment is also asymmetric. In short, their behaviour mirrors the predictions of Prospect
Theory.
These insights were made possible by exploiting an innate ant behaviour; the deposition of
trail pheromones. Pheromone deposition represents an honest signal of value
judgement, and by measuring it we can directly gauge how much an ant values an option.
Here, I propose using the pheromone laying paradigm as a window into the mind of an
invertebrate. In a series of experiments firmly grounded in economic and psychological
theory, I will establish ants as model economic agents. I will go on to test key theories in
economics and consumer psychology in this simple and unbiased system.
The advantages in using invertebrates as model economic agents are manifold: It avoids
the main pitfall of work on humans; cultural biases and second-guessing of the
experimenters by the subjects. It allows rapid and cheap testing of hypotheses. Whether
human relative valuation is learned or innate is hotly debated- finding relative valuation in
an insect will strongly suggest this be innate. Finally, we will be able to better understand
how ant valuation system affects collective behaviours, and thus will be able to investigate
the adaptiveness of seemingly irrational decisions.
The interdisciplinary nature of this project, bringing together Economics, Psychology,
and Behavioural Ecology, will provide new methods and a fertile ground for insights into
fundamental mechanisms of decision making in both animals and humans.
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