By tracking anglers during real-world ice fishing competitions in Finland, a new study shows that human foragers – previously thought to be solitary decision makers – rely heavily on social information in shaping decisions. When anglers discovered where competitors fished, how long they stayed, and when they moved on, they were strongly influenced in their own behaviors. The findings offer an empirical framework for understanding how groups collectively adapt to changes in environmental conditions and changes in resource availability. Humans occupy an unusually demanding foraging niche compared with other species – one shaped by unique ecological and social challenges. These pressures are widely believed to have been a main driver of the evolution of human cognitive abilities. Yet surprisingly little is known about how people make basic foraging decisions in real-world contexts, particularly in competitive or social settings. Most previous research has treated foragers as solitary decision makers, largely overlooking the social environments in which foraging often occurs. Understanding how social information is used in such contexts is essential not only for refining theories of social decision making but also for predicting how human groups respond and adapt to environmental change.
To address this gap, Alexander Schakowski and colleagues studied the behaviors of anglers across ten ice fishing competitions held among six Finnish lakes. Participants were equipped with high-precision GPS trackers and head-mounted cameras, allowing the authors to capture detailed data on movement, interaction, and fishing success. These observations were then compared with cognitive-computational models and agent-based simulations to reveal how experimental, ecological, and social information were integrated into individual strategies. The findings show that fishers adaptively relied on social cues, especially when they were unsuccessful in one area, to guide their foraging decisions. In such cases, participants tended to gravitate toward areas where others were fishing and remained longer at spots when surrounded by other nearby competitors. These behaviors produced area-restricted search patterns that were especially strong in crowded areas. Moreover, the findings revealed striking and consistent individual differences in how participants used social cues to avoid unproductive fishing spots. Notably, women appeared to rely more on social information when selecting fishing spots – a pattern that was likely driven more by cultural context and social norms rather than gender alone. In a related Perspective, Peter Todd and Thomas Hills discuss the study in greater detail.
