The evolution of honest communication: the physiological consequences of social costs

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The honesty of animal communication systems is a central issue in behavioral biology. What prevents weak, low quality individuals from "cheating" by signaling that they are strong? The general answer is that quality signals are costly and signaling a high level of quality is relatively more costly for low quality than high quality individuals. This project will take a new perspective on the factors that maintain signal honesty by testing the interplay between two well-known costs: aggressive social costs and physiological costs. The short and long term consequences of signal inaccuracy will be tested via behavioral observation and measurement of endocrine titers in Polistes dominulus paper wasps. Intellectual merit: Although much progress has been made toward understanding the honesty of animal communication systems, many well-known ornaments lack clear costs. Further, there are theoretical and empirical challenges associated with understanding how aggressive social costs maintain signal honesty over evolutionary time. Our proposal will extend and re-define current hypotheses by testing the physiological consequences of social punishment. As such, it will address many of the challenges associated with understanding social costs and broaden the applicability of this hypothesis to diverse systems. Overall, understanding the dynamic feedbacks between physiology and social costs should increase understanding of the reliability of animal communication systems. Broader impacts: Training of undergraduate students will be a major component of the project, as this research is effective at capturing student interest and the techniques are accessible to aspiring researchers. Additional educational activities will include participation in public science education programs and visits to local schools.