Social animals should limit individuality to conform with the behaviour of the group, says study

Scientists  have observed that group safety was improved when animals paid attention to the behaviours of each other.

Their findings, accepted for publication in PLoS Computational Biology, reveal that simple social behavioral rules can drive conformity behaviour in groups, eroding consistent behavioural differences shown by individual animals.

Personality suppression may be a common strategy in group-living animals, and in particular, we should tend to see the behaviors of the most adventurous or shy individuals shifting towards what the majority of the group are doing.

The team modeled the behavior of a small group of animals with differing tendencies while performing risky behaviours when traveling away from a safe home site towards a foraging site. They then compared this to their behaviour while completing the same activity in a group.

The group-aware individuals spent longer in the safe space and moved more quickly to the foraging spot, making the mission less dangerous. Groups are usually made up of individuals who are different to each other in the way that they normally behave—these consistent individual differences are what determines the personality of the individual.

This study was based on fish behaviour. 

When faced with a social task,  researchers found that the fish tend to suppress their own behavior, and instead conform with what other fish in the group are doing.

 If individuals pay attention to other group members, this has an overall impact on the efficiency of the group, and demonstrates that simple social behaviors can result in the suppression of individual personalities.

.This suggests that compromise may lie at the heart of many social behaviors across the animal kingdom.

Sean A. Rands et al, Personality variation is eroded by simple social behaviours in collective foragers, PLoS Computational Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010908. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol … journal.pcbi.1010908 On bioRxiv: DOI: 10.1101/2022.03.21.485155

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After reading this, a friend asked me, 'Krishna, what happens when a person is a rebel and refuses to accept the rules of his group'? 

And this 's my reply to him: :) Hmmm! I know who you have in mind when you asked me this Q.

Because I am a rebel most of the time and never compromise on what I think is correct and never follow the rules of any group I am in if I think they are not correct. 

Like following superstitions, irrational beliefs , unscientific opinions and thinking, and silly behaviours.

That can put me in  dangerous situations because I move away from the groups. But it doesn't matter to me. I can take care of myself. I have confidence in myself. 

If any person can do this, have the courage of conviction, it doesn't matter even if s/he doesn't stick to his group's rules. 

No unnecessary compromises please to save ourselves, because we are the strongest  mentally. We don't limit our individualities.

I am not anti-social but anti-irrational systems. If a group is doing everything right, I will stay with the group. If it is not, I will definitely move away from it, safety or no safety.