Paper highlights: Social information enables organisms, from whales to bacteria, to expand their sensory capacity beyond that of a single individual. Understanding why such collective sensing evolves requires evaluating the ecological costs and benefits of using and producing social information. The value of social information for an individual consumer depends on how the resource varies in space, time, and abundance. This value of social information depends not only on its role in maximizing resource gain but also in increasing the consistency of that gain over time to ensure individual survival and fitness. We urge researchers to revisit existing data and design new studies that explicitly consider organisms’ resource landscapes, sensory capacities, and need for reliable foraging success to understand when and why collective sensing evolves.
Authors: William K. Oestreich, Jenna E. Kohles, Briana Abrahms, Kelly J. Benoit-Bird, Andrew M. Berdahl, John P. Ryan, Dina K.N. Dechmann
Journal: Trends in Ecology & Evolution
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2026.01.010
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