Understanding human decision-making with models of animal foraging

Thesis

Classic research in human decision-making has typically required participants to make choices between two options associated with different reward values. However, models of animal foraging suggest that there is another important class of problems that animals have to solve frequently – patch-leaving decisions. In patch-leaving decisions, the important variable is not which option an agent picks at a standardised timepoint, but rather, when an agent leaves a current location to travel and find rewards elsewhere. In this thesis, I’ll be discussing how we can use models of animal foraging to better explain human decision-making. Across two studies I will examine whether humans conform to the principles identified in studies of animal foraging, when making patch-leaving decisions. The first experiment I’ll be discussing explores a range of factors that can affect economic decision-making under a patch-foraging paradigm, including the value of the environment in which an individual patch is situated, the time and effort costs of leaving a particular patch, and the value of the patch itself. The second set of experiments I’ll be discussing explores how we can use this same patch-leaving paradigm to better understand human social decision-making. These studies both support the notion that humans make decisions about when to leave locations in a manner that conforms to the principles of theories of how animals solve patch-leaving problems. Across the thesis, I will review animal foraging research, as well as relevant human research, and discuss the strengths of this approach and highlight the work’s limitations. Overall, I conclude that behavioural ecology approaches to animal behaviour may be fruitful for understanding human decision-making.

Authors: O'Nell, KC

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-eomrwzkz8
• Type of award: MSc by Research
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: social decision-making; decision-making; fairness; foraging
• Subjects: Social psychology