====== Consensus decision making in animals ======


Larissa Conradt and Timothy J. Roper\\
Consensus decision making in animals\\
Vol.20 No.8 August 2005\\

{{:papers:conradt05_consensus_animals.pdf|(read this paper)}}

<blockquote Abstract>
Individual animals routinely face decisions that are crucial
to their fitness. In social species, however, many of these
decisions need to be made jointly with other group
members because the group will split apart unless a
consensus is reached. Here, we review empirical and
theoretical studies of consensus decision making, and
place them in a coherent framework. In particular, we
classify consensus decisions according to the degree to
which they involve conflict of interest between group
members, and whether they involve either local or global
communication; we ask, for different categories of
consensus decision, who makes the decision, what are
the underlying mechanisms, and what are the functional
consequences. We conclude that consensus decision
making is common in non-human animals, and that
cooperation between group members in the decisionmaking
process is likely to be the norm, even when the
decision involves significant conflict of interest.
</blockquote>

{{tag>behavior social cooperation dominance politics stub}}