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Behavioural biologists don't agree on what constitutes behaviour.

Daniel A Levitis¹, William Z Lidicker, Glenn Freund

¹Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley.

Animal Behaviour

|February 18, 2010

Summary

Defining behaviour in behavioural biology is crucial. A new definition, "internally coordinated responses of whole organisms to stimuli, excluding developmental changes," is proposed based on expert surveys revealing widespread disagreement.

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Area of Science:

Behavioural biology
Ethology
Animal behaviour

Background:

Behavioural biology centers on the concept of behaviour.
Existing definitions of behaviour lack consensus.
Understanding behaviour is fundamental to biological sciences.

Purpose of the Study:

To analyze existing definitions of behaviour.
To investigate expert understanding of behaviour.
To propose a new, scientifically robust definition of behaviour.

Main Methods:

Literature review of published definitions of behaviour.
Survey of 174 members from three behaviour-focused scientific societies.
Analysis of survey responses to identify common interpretations and disagreements.

Main Results:

No consensus found in published definitions of behaviour.
Significant disagreement among experts regarding the definition of behaviour.
Survey respondents demonstrated individually variable, intuitive understandings of behaviour.

Conclusions:

A new definition is proposed: "Behaviour is the internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals or groups) to internal and/or external stimuli, excluding responses more easily understood as developmental changes."
This definition aims to provide a codified and consistent understanding of behaviour in scientific contexts.
Further discussion on the implications and limitations of the proposed definition is warranted.