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 which extent Prospect theory’s claims are evolutionary rooted. To shed light on this issue, we collected data in 9 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 agents that exhibit risk-seeking and an inverted S-shape distorted perception of probability. We compared these two results and found that monkeys' attitude toward risk when facing losses only is congruent with the simulation. This result is consistent with the idea that gambling in the loss domain is analogous to deciding in a context of life-threatening challenges where a certain level of risk-seeking behaviours and probability distortions may be adaptive.
The adaptive value of probability distortion and risk-seeking in macaques' decision-making
Résumé
en
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 which extent Prospect theory’s claims are evolutionary rooted. To shed light on this issue, we collected data in 9 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 agents that exhibit risk-seeking and an inverted S-shape distorted perception of probability. We compared these two results and found that monkeys' attitude toward risk when facing losses only is congruent with the simulation. This result is consistent with the idea that gambling in the loss domain is analogous to deciding in a context of life-threatening challenges where a certain level of risk-seeking behaviours and probability distortions may be adaptive.
Auteur(s)
Aurélien Nioche1
, Nicolas P. Rougier2
, Marc Deffains3
, Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde4, 5
, Sébastien Ballesta6
, Thomas Boraud3
1
Department of Communications and Networking [Aalto Univ]
( 253166 )
- Aalto University, School of Electrical Engineering, Otakaari 5 A FI-02150 Espoo Finland
- Finlande
School of Electrical Engineering [Aalto Univ] ( 1057361 )
;
Aalto University ( 360464 )
2
Mnemosyne -
Mnemonic Synergy
( 188658 )
- 200, avenue de la Vieille Tour
33405 Talence cedex
- France
Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique ( 3102 )
;
Université de Bordeaux ( 259761 )
;
École Nationale Supérieure d'Électronique, Informatique et Radiocommunications de Bordeaux (ENSEIRB) ( 300366 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR5800 / URA1304 ( 441569 )
;
Inria Bordeaux - Sud-Ouest ( 104751 )
;
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique ( 300009 )
;
Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives [Bordeaux] ( 244085 )
;
Université de Bordeaux ( 259761 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR5293 ( 441569 )
3
IMN -
Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives [Bordeaux]
( 244085 )
- Bât. 3b 1er étage 146 Rue Léo Saignat 33076 Bordeaux
- France
Université de Bordeaux ( 259761 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR5293 ( 441569 )
4
LEMMA -
Laboratoire d'économie mathématique et de microéconomie appliquée
( 219652 )
- Université Paris 2, LEMMA 4 rue Blaise Desgoffe 75006 Paris
- France
Université Panthéon-Assas EA4442 ( 44614 )
5
IJN -
Institut Jean-Nicod
( 1273 )
- Pavillon Jardin 29, rue d'Ulm 75005 Paris
- France
Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS Paris ( 91936 )
;
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( 99539 )
;
Collège de France ( 300026 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR8129 ( 441569 )
;
Département de Philosophie - ENS Paris ( 467484 )
;
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
6
UNISTRA -
Université de Strasbourg
( 199013 )
- 4 rue Blaise Pascal - CS 90032 - 67081 Strasbourg cedex
- France
Langue du document
Anglais
Nom de la revue
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
(ISSN : 0962-8436, ISSN électronique : 1471-2970)
Royal Society, The
Publié par Royal Society, The
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org
Revue non référencée dans Sherpa-Romeo
Vulgarisation
Non
Comité de lecture
Oui
Audience
Internationale
Volume
376
Numéro
1819
Page/Identifiant
20190668
Date de publication
2021-01-21
Domaine(s)
Sciences cognitives/Neurosciences
Sciences cognitives
Informatique [cs]/Modélisation et simulation
Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Economies et finances
Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]/Neurosciences [q-bio.NC]/Psychologie et comportements
Projet(s) ANR
Implications d'une information minimale et de capacités computationnelles limitées sur l'émergence de la monnaie: Une approche expérimentale des humains, des macaques et des agents virtuels
[En savoir plus]
macaque40 -
ANR-16-CE38-0003
AAPG2016
- 2016
Financement
We are grateful to Silabe and the University of Strasbourg for expert animal care of the Tonkean colony and financial support. We thank Hélène Meunier for the initial training of the Tonkean colony on a touchscreen interface and Adam Rimele for technical support and data management. The rhesus macaques were housed in the centre Paul Broca Nouvelle Aquitaine, thanks to Labex BRAIN financial support. Hugues Orignac and Tho-Hai N’Guyen take care of them with great skills. TB and MD are supported by the CNRS, SB by the University of Strasbourg, SBG by the University of Panthéon-Assas, NR by Inria and AN by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-16-CE38-0003), the Ministère de la Recherche et de la Technologie (French ministry for research and technology), Sorbonne Université and Aalto University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Aurélien Nioche, Nicolas P. Rougier, Marc Deffains, Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde, Sébastien Ballesta, et al.. The adaptive value of probability distortion and risk-seeking in macaques' decision-making. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2021, 376 (1819), pp.20190668. ⟨10.1098/rstb.2019.0668⟩. ⟨hal-03005035v2⟩