31. Swan Smarts
Thomas Seeley
Thomas D. Seeley, Neurobiology and Behavior, and his research group discovered the unique decision-making process that a honeybee swarm uses to choose a new home—a process that involves factions within a swarm competing for supporters. Although scientists had known that honeybees “waggle dance” to report food, Seeley’s group confirmed that they also dance to report on potential nesting sites (tree cavities) as part of their group decision-making process. Various scout bees discover diverse sites and report them with their dances. The better the site is, the longer the dances advertising it and the faster the buildup of bees at the site. Nearly always, the scouts build up most rapidly at the site that first acquires the quorum threshold of 15 assembled bees to become the chosen site. Seeley and his colleagues, who have studied this group decision-making process for more than 10 years, reported this plebiscite among bees as a striking example of decision-making within an animal group that is complicated enough to rival the deliberations of any academic department. The bees’ method, based on vigorous competition among options rather than a quick compromise, consistently yields excellent collective decisions. The researchers concluded that the honeybees’ method of decision making, which includes an open forum of ideas, frank “discussion,” and friendly competition, might help human committees achieve collective intelligence and avoid collective nonsense.