Social learning of food preferences in ‘dissatisfied’ and ‘uncertain’ Norway rats

Formal models of trade-offs between individual and social learning predict situations in which animals should increase their reliance on socially acquired information. In three experiments, we found, that as theory predicts, ‘dissatisfied’ and ‘uncertain’ Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, increased their reliance on social learning. When choosing between two unfamiliar foods, rats that had been maintained for 1 week on either (experiment 1) an unpalatable, energetically dilute diet or (experiment 2) an unyielding surface in a hot, constantly illuminated room, as well as (experiment 3) rats uncertain as to which of two unfamiliar flavours that they had ingested was associated with illness showed greater reliance on socially acquired information than did their respective ‘satisfied’ and ‘certain’ controls.