Use of social information by sodium- and protein-deficient rats: test of a prediction (Boyd & Richerson 1988)

Boyd & Richerson (1988 Social Learning: Psychological and Biological Perspectives, pp. 29–48) predicted from formal models of the evolution of social learning that an animal should rely more heavily on socially acquired information when seeking a nutrient that it has difficulty learning to select for itself than when seeking a nutrient it can readily identify. We compared the extent to which Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, seeking either sodium (which they can easily identify) or protein (which they cannot identify), relied on information acquired from recently fed conspecific demonstrators when selecting a food. Consistent with Boyd & Richerson's prediction, when choosing between two unfamiliar, distinctively flavoured foods rich in both protein and sodium, protein-deprived rats showed significantly greater social influence on their food choices than did sodium-deprived rats.