Health & Medicine
Did Natural Selection Lead to 'Irrational' Behavior?
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Jan 16, 2014 09:44 PM EST
A recent study looks at how natural selection may have lead to irrational behavior.
According to researchers from the University of Bristol, they looked at how optimal choices also have a chance of violating the principle of transivity-i.e., the better option might be A from A and B, and B from B or C, etc.
"I foresaw that inferior options could affect choices, but the finding of intransitive choice is most exciting," said study's lead author, Professor John McNamara of Bristol's School of Mathematics in a press release.
For the study, researchers conducted part of a Modeling Animal Decisions team at the University of Bristol. With an emphasis on the understanding of mental mechanisms from an evolutionary perspective.
As the study is considered in terms of animals choosing between prey options and their choices, an important aspect of the study showed that two of the keystone principles of rationality, regularity and transitivity could not easily be applied.
What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found via the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters.
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
TagsHealth ©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: Jan 16, 2014 09:44 PM EST
A recent study looks at how natural selection may have lead to irrational behavior.
According to researchers from the University of Bristol, they looked at how optimal choices also have a chance of violating the principle of transivity-i.e., the better option might be A from A and B, and B from B or C, etc.
"I foresaw that inferior options could affect choices, but the finding of intransitive choice is most exciting," said study's lead author, Professor John McNamara of Bristol's School of Mathematics in a press release.
For the study, researchers conducted part of a Modeling Animal Decisions team at the University of Bristol. With an emphasis on the understanding of mental mechanisms from an evolutionary perspective.
As the study is considered in terms of animals choosing between prey options and their choices, an important aspect of the study showed that two of the keystone principles of rationality, regularity and transitivity could not easily be applied.
What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found via the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone