Adapting to Perceived Danger and Reward with Strategic Collective Decision-­Making in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Abstract

Among social animal groups, consensus decision‐making is often important for the survival of the group. The decision-­making process consists of several facets of information that aggregate into one final decision. Sometimes, when the personal information of the group members and the public information available conflict, the group may split. Here, we look at how groups of zebrafish respond to the presence of various manipulations of risk and reward. We determine that when fish groups find reward in an area perceived as lower-­risk, they are likely to immediately choose that reward area as their optimal strategy. When fish groups find reward in areas perceived as higher-­risk, they are likely to spend time exploring the other areas before committing to a consensus decision to enter their high-­risk reward area.