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Do Animals "Lie"? Yes, Even to Their Own Kind, Biologist Says

2010-03-25 20:41:05

1995-09-25

When in a tight spot, animals "lie" to their own kind to get what they want, a University of Rochester biologist has found. In work described in the current issue of the Journal of Theoretical Biology, Eldridge Adams shows that within a single species, it is possible for some members to deceive others.

By proving that the weaker are able to deceive the stronger to survive, Adams' findings runs counter to a common belief by biologists that communication within a species must always be reliable and honest.

"We've shown that the communication is not always reliable, and that in theory, you shouldn't expect it to be," says Adams, who began the work as a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley.

Biologists have long recognized that deception is commonplace in communication between different species. But most believed bluffing among animals of a single species should be rare or impossible.

To demonstrate how widespread deception between members of the same species could be, Adams watched hundreds of confrontations between two-inch, crayfish-like stomatopod crustaceans, whose bluffing was originally observed by behavioral ecologists Roy Caldwell and Rick Steger. Working with co-author Michael Mesterton-Gibbons of Florida State University, Adams modeled a confrontation mathematically and proves in a game theory model that bluffing is possible in a stable communication system.

Adams studied one species of stomatopod crustacean, Gonodactylus bredini, in Panama while doing graduate work under Caldwell. The creatures, known to sushi connoisseurs as mantis shrimp, live in cavities in shallow, tropical waters.

Stomatopods typically compete over these cavities, and when a confrontation looms, they can either flee or fight. If the creature chooses to fight, it often invokes a threat display, holding its appendages out to the side and lifting its head aggressively. If the opponent chooses to fight, the creatures use their appendages to whack each other with considerable force. (Stomatopods are good at this: They regularly beat senseless crabs and other hard sea creatures before cracking the shells open and gulping them down; their striking force is so great that marine biologists have nicknamed them "thumb busters.")

If threats were always honest, or reliable, only the strongest creatures -- those able to back up a threat with deadly force -- would menace others. But both the strongest and the weakest stomatopods threaten. In fact, creatures rely on threats most when they are weakest: immediately after molting, when their new skeleton is still hardening up and they don't even have hard appendages capable of crushing an opponent. "These threats often drive off opponents," says Adams, "yet they're certainly not reliable. These animals are bluffing, and they would be readily killed in a fight."

Biologists have long thought that such widespread bluffing wasn't possible in a stable communication system. If weak animals use threats deceptively, they reasoned, threats would become so common that the communication system would quickly break down because other animals wouldn't pay attention to any threats, whether real or deceptive. Adams and Mesterton-Gibbons have shown that a system can remain stable even though some members bluff successfully.

Adams likens the phenomenon to a game of draw poker between two people. "Each person knows his or her own strength, but not the strength of the opponent. Sometimes the optimal strategy is to threaten the opponent by raising the stakes, even though you have a weak hand."

This work was funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Packard Foundation.

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Posted: 2010229@851.44

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stranger

Do Animals Lie?

Is lying just a human trait or do animals lie, too? Many people believe animals don't lie, that they're immune to such human failings. However, many studies show that animals do indeed lie. In fact, lying appears to be a sign of intelligence. Therefore, the more intelligent the animal, the more likely it is to lie.

Take for example Koko the Gorilla. When her handlers confronted her after she tore a steel sink out of its mooring, she signed "cat did it" and pointed at her innocent pet kitten.

Perhaps the Koko example lends credence to the idea that lying comes with language. The more elaborate the language, the more elaborate the lying. Koko has learned to sign over 1000 words. The more words she knows, the easier it is for her to lie. Perhaps all animals have within them the tendency to deceive, but only with language is that tendency able to fully blossom.

Still, it doesn't mean that animals without complex language abilities don't bluff or lie. In a 1995 issue of the Journal of Theoretical Biology, a University of Rochester biologist Eldridge Adams published the results of research that show that animals of the same species bluff to get what they want. Specifically, he showed that a species of crustacean called Gonodactylus bredini have the ability to bluff stronger opponents into giving up a fight.

Many animals and insects have an inborn ability to camouflage themselves in order to hide from prey. Camouflage is a form of deception. It isn't in an animal's best interest to draw attention to itself. The more it blends, the longer it lives.

Is it possible that deception is not only a natural instinct of all living creatures, but that it is absolutely essential to survival? After all, those who lie (whether they be human or otherwise), often do so for their own gain - to avoid punishment, embarrassment, or harm.

The better a creature is at lying, bluffing, and deceiving, the more likely it is to survive in this world. Lying is all about deceiving predators and surviving - whether it is an insect changing its colors or a human lying to a boss who might fire him and take away his income and means of survival.

Could one reason that humans have evolved as much as we have be precisely this - that we are the world's best tricksters and liars? Does mastering the art of deceit mean mastering the world?

--- Mobile internet site for reading on mobile phones, smartphones, small screens and slow internet connections. ---http://mpggalaxy.mine.bz/www/BB/mobile_news/threads/index_last.html

Posted: 2010229@851.65

stranger

Ivan Seeking

Apr30-03, 03:32 AM

My wife and I are animal lovers. We don't watch the pet psychic and we don't have funerals for our pets. I do enjoy analyzing out pets' [cats and dogs] behaviors and something really interesting occurred to me. My pets tell willful lies! Both cats and dogs clearly understand that they are not to do certain things. For example, the cats know that their not supposed to be on the kitchen cabinets. So what do they do, the smart ones that is, they wait until we go to bed and then they have a party in the kitchen. They understand a law and then follow a calculated and deceitful strategy to obtain their goal...the chicken bones! Also, my dogs are well trained and stay within the bounds of our five acres...until we go to sleep. I realized that our smartest dog, a Border Collie, would wait until the light went out. She would then sneak past our bedroom window ever so quietly, and then run up on the road and have a party with all of the other willful and deceitful dogs. She also taught our other dogs how the procedure

works. When caught, sometime without even looking at me, and without my saying a word, the animal knows they are in trouble.

Are these examples of lies? Do dogs go to hell? What does this say about sin? What does this say about the intelligence of the animal. One could argue that this indicates a rather high level of intelligence as compared to our normal assumptions about household pets. One thing seem certain, deceit is in the genes!

[<:)]

wuliheron

Apr30-03, 09:12 AM

Deception is a sign of intelligence and some argue it is the basis for what we call personality, ego, etc. In other words, even the sense we have of being unique individuals possessed of a distinctive and singular sense of self could be based on self-deception. This could explain why animals display less personality the less intelligent they are. Cats compete for territory and dogs compete for higher positions within the pack heirarchy. Direct confrontation is not always the most successful or reasonable way to compete for these things.

Chimps present a more personal glimpse into the world of deception. If the alpha male picks on a low ranking chimp in the troop heirarchy a bit too much, he may sneak up behind him in the middle of night and bash his brains in with a club. Occationally, three to five male chimps will sneak into a neighboring troop of chimps under cover of darkness, and bash their brains in with clubs. Again, usually they will only do this when they feel the neighboring troop is threatening them too much.

For their part, female chimps who feel the alpha male is being particularly abusive will jump behind the bushes with their favorite male the minute they come into heat. After a while the alpha will no longer be capable of reproducing. As a result, he will likely leave the troop and join another one at the bottom of the social ladder.

Note that in each case what is at stake is violence and resources, and in each and every case, paradoxically, the more social the animal the more intelligent and deceptive, i.e. the better lies they tell among other things. Humanity has taken deception to new heights and part of that process has been learning to play off people's own self-deceptions.

kyle_soule

Apr30-03, 09:49 AM

While your pets show a surprising intelligence, what you are seeing isn't lying. Your pets don't want to upset you, as I'm sure you have experienced. When you are around and they get on the counter or on the road they know they will get punished, for some reason they want to be on the counter or in the road, though. So they have found that when you are not around they do not upset you with these actions. They have also found that when you go to bed, or the light turns off, that is the signal for your going to bed, leading to the belief that you won't get upset with these actions.

It is demonstrated that animals DO lie, to other species, and sometimes there own, which was previously thought impossible. Observations can be made, in a game theory model, that animals lie to their own kind in a stable communication system. It is really on an evolutionary necessity. An example of this would be an experiment, done by Eldridge Adams, that involved Gonodactylus bredini's. They typical engage in a 'fight' in which either one must die. The weaker one would always lose, except sometimes the weaker one will engage in the pre-fight ritual which will sometimes scare off its opponent. This is a type of bluff demonstrates the capability of an animal to lie.

EDIT: Gonodactylus bredini is a type of stomatopod crustacean. Also took out quoted topic.

Ivan Seeking

Apr30-03, 10:21 AM

You mean I've been sitting through all of this Dr. Phil stuff for nothing!

Interesting. More Pavlovian than Freudian so to speak? Exactly how do we test for this distinction? Don t misunderstand, I know how people can get, and I don t need my dogs or cats to understand me or I them. But it really seems like they do understand rather than just react.

wuliheron

Apr30-03, 10:24 AM

Countless animals from fish to wolves will bluff their opponents when their hair stands on end or they arch their backs or puff themselves up to look larger and more imposing. The question of whether or not this kind of behavior is to be considered lying or deception depends upon your point of view. From the point of view that a lie must be intentional rather than reflexive it is much more difficult to determine, but it is not difficult if you just call it lying and deceptive no matter whether it is reflexive and instinctual or not. Thus whether or not cats are being deceptive when they wait for people to leave before jumping on the kitchen counter is debatable.

Another integral aspect of deception, especially in species like cats and people who are competitive within their own species, is long term chronic physiological and psychological impact of violence. Something like forty percent of americans, for example, will suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at some time in their lives. For a small percentage, it will become chronic for the rest of their lives while for others it can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few years.

In studies done with chimps again, the impact of trauma can be severe on the individual's ability to reproduce, fend for itself, socialize, etc. and can even dramatically shorten the lifespan. It also promotes more destructive violence within the species. Hence the animal's ability to accurately ascertain not only whether it can win a fight, but also how much it may have to pay psychologically and physically for winning a fight is crucial. They may win the battle only to loose the war.

I live on a farm with many stray cats, and sometimes they will go to extremes to defend their territory. At other times they will go to extremes to avoid a fight. Between these two extremes some of the more successful ones are those who can out-smart the competition by invading their territory unseen, bluffing their way out of fights, etc. If it ain't lying and deception, I can't tell the difference.

BoulderHead

Apr30-03, 10:25 AM

I once had a Weimaraner that while sneaking around inside the house would raise her claws off the tile floor to keep them from clicking and giving her position away. She was a very intelligent animal.