The adaptive value of probability distortion and risk-seeking in macaques' decision-making.

ABSTRACT: In humans, the attitude toward risk is not neutral and is dissimilar between bets involving gains and bets involving losses. The existence and prevalence of these decision features in non-human primates are unclear. In addition, only a few studies have tried to simulate the evolution of agents based on their attitude toward risk. Therefore, we still ignore to what extent Prospect theory's claims are evolutionarily rooted. To shed light on this issue, we collected data from nine macaques that performed bets involving gains or losses. We confirmed that their overall behaviour is coherent with Prospect theory's claims. In parallel, we used a genetic algorithm to simulate the evolution of a population of agents across several generations. We showed that the algorithm selects progressively agen

SUBMITTER: Nioche A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7815430 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature