Hauser M D
Department of Zoology, University of California, Davis 95616-8761.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Dec 15;89(24):12137-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.24.12137.
From a functional perspective, deception can evolve in animal populations but should be constrained by the costs associated with detection. It then follows that withholding information should be more prevalent as a form of deception than active falsification of information because of the relative difficulties associated with detecting cheaters. Empirical studies of deception have focused on the benefits of cheating but have provided no data on the costs associated with being detected as a cheater. I present results from field experiments on rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) which show that individuals discovering food announce their discoveries by calling on 45% of all trials. Discoverers who failed to call, but were detected with food by other group members, received significantly more aggression than vocal discoverers. Moreover, silent female discoverers ate significantly less food than vocal females. This demonstrates that there are significant costs to withholding information. Such costs may constrain the frequency with which deception occurs in this and other populations.
从功能角度来看，欺骗行为能够在动物群体中演化，但应受到与被察觉相关成本的限制。由此可见，作为一种欺骗形式，隐瞒信息应比主动伪造信息更为普遍，因为察觉欺骗者存在相对困难。关于欺骗行为的实证研究聚焦于作弊的益处，但未提供任何关于被视为欺骗者所涉及成本的数据。我展示了对恒河猴（猕猴）进行的野外实验结果，这些结果表明，发现食物的个体在所有试验中有45%的情况下会通过呼叫来宣布它们的发现。未呼叫但被其他群体成员发现持有食物的发现者，比出声的发现者受到了显著更多的攻击。此外，沉默的雌性发现者吃掉的食物明显少于出声的雌性。这表明隐瞒信息存在重大成本。此类成本可能会限制这种欺骗行为在该群体及其他群体中出现的频率。
