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Human Group Choice, the Ideal
Free Distribution, and Competitive Differences. When faced with choices between two behavioral alternatives, group members may distribute ideally if they are free to make their choices without interference from group members with different competitive abilities (Ideal Free Distribution (IFD); Fretwell & Lucas, 1970). The ratios of individuals engaging in each alternative has been observed to match the ratios of resources obtained from alternatives, but typically, groups’ choices undermatch obtained resources (i.e., too few group members choosing the rich alternative and too many choosing the lean). If competitive differences do exist between group members, superior competitors may dominate the richer behavioral alternative and cause a disproportionate number of inferior competitors to choose the leaner alternative (Differing Competitive Weights; Grand, 1997). An IFD analysis of unequal competitors would reveal undermatching, but a differing competitive weight analysis would reveal matching between the ratios of group members’ competitive weights and the ratios of obtained resources. In two experiments, groups of humans chose between behavioral alternatives to earn points that led to monetary prizes. The experimenter manipulated the ratios of points obtained from alternatives and the competitive differences between group members. Although IFD analyses revealed undermatching, differing competitive weight analyses did not reveal decreased undermatching as expected. In both analyses, the groups’ choices were orderly, albeit not as extreme as predicted by either model. Keywords: Group Choice, Ideal Free Distribution, Competitive Weights, Behavioral Ecology, Human Operant Behavior. |
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