Media Releases >
Media Releases Archive
> Wasp research proves posers get punished
Wasp research proves posers get punished
Document Tools
Contact
James Dale, 604.291.5864; james@sfu.ca
Elizabeth Tibbetts, 520.626.2894; eat11@email.arizona.edu
SFU Media & PR, 604.291.3210
James Dale, 604.291.5864; james@sfu.ca
Elizabeth Tibbetts, 520.626.2894; eat11@email.arizona.edu
SFU Media & PR, 604.291.3210
November 10, 2004
Pretend to be something you're not, and you may get stung by your peers. That's just one lesson to be gleaned from a new study of paper wasps by evolutionary biologist James Dale, a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, and his University of Arizona colleague Elizabeth Tibbetts.
The research by Tibbetts and Dale appears this week in the prestigious journal, Nature. Their paper, A socially enforced signal of quality in a paper wasp, describes the dramatic facial variations in common wasps and their role in determining pecking order.
The wasps with more pronounced facial markings tended to be more dominant, leading the researchers to question what keeps wimpy wasps from faking it by developing similar spots. There is no developmental cost to wasps to produce facial markings-“they don't need a super-abundance of pigment or anything,” says Dale-but there is a definite social cost.
“The status signals are kept honest through social enforcement. Wasps have a remarkably sophisticated social system. When two wasps meet, they will engage in a ritual where one will try to mount the other to determine which is dominant and which is subordinate. When we painted extra spots on some wasps, we found not only that their place in the dominance ritual did not change, but that after dominance was established, the cheater wasps were punished with six times more aggression from the other wasps.”
"Our best explanation is that there is some other information about wasp quality that doesn't match the altered face,” says Tibbetts. “It's the most conclusive evidence that dishonest visual signals can have social costs. If you fake it, you'll get beaten up.”
Dale suggests that human beings might take a lesson from the wasps: they do better when they don't pretend to be more than they are. “You need to back up your status with substance, or else be prepared to admit you are subordinate. If you claim to be more than you are-like a karate yellow belt who pretends to be a black belt-you're likely to pay for your cockiness with more aggressive interactions with other people.”
-30-
Electronic images available
Website: Nature
www.nature.com/
The research by Tibbetts and Dale appears this week in the prestigious journal, Nature. Their paper, A socially enforced signal of quality in a paper wasp, describes the dramatic facial variations in common wasps and their role in determining pecking order.
The wasps with more pronounced facial markings tended to be more dominant, leading the researchers to question what keeps wimpy wasps from faking it by developing similar spots. There is no developmental cost to wasps to produce facial markings-“they don't need a super-abundance of pigment or anything,” says Dale-but there is a definite social cost.
“The status signals are kept honest through social enforcement. Wasps have a remarkably sophisticated social system. When two wasps meet, they will engage in a ritual where one will try to mount the other to determine which is dominant and which is subordinate. When we painted extra spots on some wasps, we found not only that their place in the dominance ritual did not change, but that after dominance was established, the cheater wasps were punished with six times more aggression from the other wasps.”
"Our best explanation is that there is some other information about wasp quality that doesn't match the altered face,” says Tibbetts. “It's the most conclusive evidence that dishonest visual signals can have social costs. If you fake it, you'll get beaten up.”
Dale suggests that human beings might take a lesson from the wasps: they do better when they don't pretend to be more than they are. “You need to back up your status with substance, or else be prepared to admit you are subordinate. If you claim to be more than you are-like a karate yellow belt who pretends to be a black belt-you're likely to pay for your cockiness with more aggressive interactions with other people.”
-30-
Electronic images available
Website: Nature
www.nature.com/