Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial
Information is increasingly being viewed as a resource used by organisms to increasetheir fitness. Indeed, it has been formally shown that there is a sensible way to assign a reproductive value to information and it is non-negative. However, all of this work assumed that information collection is co...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
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John Wiley & Sons Ltd
2017
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| _version_ | 1797076608417267712 |
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| author | Field, J Bonsall, M |
| author_facet | Field, J Bonsall, M |
| author_sort | Field, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Information is increasingly being viewed as a resource used by organisms to increasetheir fitness. Indeed, it has been formally shown that there is a sensible way to assign a reproductive value to information and it is non-negative. However, all of this work assumed that information collection is cost-free. Here, we account for such a cost and provide conditions for when the reproductive value of information will be negative. In these instances, counter-intuitively, it is in the interest of the organism to remain ignorant. We link our results to empirical studies where Bayesian behaviour appears to break down in complex environments and provide an alternative explanation of lowered arousal thresholds in the evolution of sleep. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:06:07Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:7798146d-b7b4-4f0f-999d-8da2a4414dc0 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:06:07Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | John Wiley & Sons Ltd |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7798146d-b7b4-4f0f-999d-8da2a4414dc02022-03-26T20:25:09ZIgnorance can be evolutionarily beneficialJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7798146d-b7b4-4f0f-999d-8da2a4414dc0Symplectic Elements at OxfordJohn Wiley & Sons Ltd2017Field, JBonsall, MInformation is increasingly being viewed as a resource used by organisms to increasetheir fitness. Indeed, it has been formally shown that there is a sensible way to assign a reproductive value to information and it is non-negative. However, all of this work assumed that information collection is cost-free. Here, we account for such a cost and provide conditions for when the reproductive value of information will be negative. In these instances, counter-intuitively, it is in the interest of the organism to remain ignorant. We link our results to empirical studies where Bayesian behaviour appears to break down in complex environments and provide an alternative explanation of lowered arousal thresholds in the evolution of sleep. |
| spellingShingle | Field, J Bonsall, M Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial |
| title | Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial |
| title_full | Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial |
| title_fullStr | Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial |
| title_short | Ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial |
| title_sort | ignorance can be evolutionarily beneficial |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fieldj ignorancecanbeevolutionarilybeneficial AT bonsallm ignorancecanbeevolutionarilybeneficial |