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Updated: Aug 8, 2026
06:48
The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
From hawks and doves to self-consistent games of territorial behavior
Hanna Kokko1, Andrés Lopez-Sepulcre, Lesley J Morrell
1Laboratory of Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics, Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Helsinki, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland. hanna.kokko@helsinki.fi
The American Naturalist
|May 11, 2006
Summary
The prior-residence effect in animal behavior is explained by a new evolutionary game theory model. This model shows how respect for territory ownership can evolve, resolving paradoxes in previous models.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary game theory
- Animal behavior
- Behavioral ecology
Background:
- The prior-residence effect, where early occupants gain ownership status, was an early application of game theory in animal behavior.
- Traditional models predict intruders always win, failing to explain natural observations of owner advantage.
Purpose of the Study:
- To resolve paradoxes in existing game theory models of the prior-residence effect.
- To develop a new evolutionary game theory model incorporating population dynamics and feedback loops.
- To explain the evolution of ownership respect in animal contests.
Main Methods:
- Developed a self-consistent evolutionary game theory model with feedbacks between individual behavior and population dynamics.
- Analyzed frequency-dependent selection on intruders (floaters) versus territory owners.
- Reviewed empirical literature on animal contests to assess the role of resource-holding power.
Main Results:
- The new model predicts qualitatively different selection pressures on floaters and owners.
- Evolutionary simulations show a tendency towards complete or partial respect for ownership from an ancestral state of no respect.
- Respect for ownership can evolve through "uncorrelated asymmetries" without requiring differences in resource-holding power or territory value.
Conclusions:
- The study provides a theoretical resolution to the paradox of the prior-residence effect.
- Respect for ownership can emerge as a stable evolutionary strategy.
- Standardized empirical approaches are needed to quantify prior-residence effects and resolve inconclusive experimental data.
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