Transition from positive to negative on the leadership effect of the biological particles group

Authored by Ma Yi, Richard Kwok Kit Yuen, Eric Wai Ming Lee

Date Published: 2016

DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/114/18003

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

This paper reports the existence of the negative effect of leadership on the collective motion of biological particles and shows that the effect of leadership may transit from positive to negative with the change in the sensing capability of the particles. Simulations were conducted in many scenarios using a simple individual-based model. The results showed that leadership can accelerate the collective motion of the biological particles and play a positive role when the sensing capability of the particles is very limited. However, when the sensing capability of the particles becomes large enough, leadership may actually slow the collective motion of the biological particles. This unusual result suggests that leadership may have a negative effect on the collective motion of biological particles. Our finding provides a new insight into how effective leadership can be achieved in a biological particles group. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2016
Tags
behavior Evacuation model movements information Animal groups Recruitment Individuals Consensus decision-making Followers Pigeons