Toward Comparative Collective Behavior to Discover Fundamental Mechanisms Underlying Behavior in Human Crowds and Nonhuman Animal Groups

Abstract

This article provides comparative perspectives on collective behaviors that are widely found throughout the animal kingdom, ranging from insect and crustacea swarms, fish schools, bird flocks, and mammal herds to human crowds. Studies of nonhuman animal and human collective behaviors have progressed almost separately even though they have a similar history. Theoretical studies have investigated the reproduction of collective phenomena from simple inter-individual rules, and subsequent empirical and experimental studies have found diverse and complex collective behaviors that are difficult to explain with classical theoretical models. As a consequence, a wide variety of interaction rules have been proposed. To determine models to be implemented in nature and find fundamental mechanisms of collective behaviors, this paper argues that we should compare collective behaviors among various species while adopting Tinbergen’s four questions regarding mechanism, function, development, and evolution as a methodological basis. As an example of a comparative collective behavior paradigm, we introduce our studies in which a mutual anticipation mechanism inspired by nonhuman animal collective behaviors can be linked to a self-organization function in human collective behaviors. We expect that the study of comparative collective behaviors will expand, the methodology will become more sophisticated, and new perspectives regarding the multitemporal features of collective behaviors will emerge.