Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Glass Is Half-Full: Overestimating The Quality Of A Novel Environment Is Advantageous, Oded Berger-Tal, Tal Avgar

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

According to optimal foraging theory, foraging decisions are based on the forager's current estimate of the quality of its environment. However, in a novel environment, a forager does not possess information regarding the quality of the environment, and may make a decision based on a biased estimate. We show, using a simple simulation model, that when facing uncertainty in heterogeneous environments it is better to overestimate the quality of the environment (to be an “optimist”) than underestimate it, as optimistic animals learn the true value of the environment faster due to higher exploration rate. Moreover, we show that when the …