一只鸟应该去那里觅食？哪条鱼是最好的父亲？羚羊应该到哪里去交配？面临这些或其他决定的动物有时靠偷听、模仿邻居，或是其它无意产生的公共信息来确定几个可能选者的相对优越性。本期一篇综述的作者从他们评论的文章中提出了一个统一这些文章的概念： 一些动物和植物从它们的邻居搜集得到有关它们周围世界的信息。作者说，模仿带来行为模式的传播。他们提出文化进化不只限于人类。作者们引用的许多文章中有一篇描述了雌性古比鱼改变其择偶偏好的例子，雌性古比鱼通常偏爱色彩鲜明的雄性，但她们在观察到其他雌性选择色彩黯淡的雄性后，也变为偏爱色彩黯淡的雄性。作者写到，通过启动文化传播，一些公共信息对进化有影响。
Public Information: From Nosy Neighbors to Cultural Evolution
Psychologists, economists, and advertising moguls have long known that human decision-making is strongly influenced by the behavior of others. A rapidly accumulating body of evidence suggests that the same is true in animals. Individuals can use information arising from cues inadvertently produced by the behavior of other individuals with similar requirements. Many of these cues provide public information about the quality of alternatives. The use of public information is taxonomically widespread and can enhance fitness. Public information can lead to cultural evolution, which we suggest may then affect biological evolution.
Fig. 1. The various forms of nongenetically acquired information (apart from parental effects). Information is anything that reduces uncertainty. Personal information is acquired individually by interacting with the physical environment. The interaction can generate both private information (inaccessible to others) and nonprivate information that produces social information (red arrow). A behavior can convey information by design; it is then a signal that is produced by selection. In many cases, however, social information is produced inadvertently; it is then a cue, and we refer to it as inadvertent social information (ISI). Topics covered in this review are in blue. ISI comprises cues that indicate the spatial location of resources (based on the location of the information producers) and cues produced by the performance of others, which is public information (PI). PI may play a major role in cultural transmission and evolution. The arrow from the cues box to the signals box indicates that signals directed to one party may inadvertently be used by a third party. The use of that information by others may create the selective pressures that transform ISI into signals (34). Thus, PI may be viewed in some contexts as the platform from which signals evolve.
Fig. 2. Some of the animals involved in studies providing empirical evidence of the use of PI. (A) A starling (Sturnus vulgaris; photo by T. J. Valone). (B) A scrub jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens; photo by N. S. Clayton). (C) A kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla; photo by E. Danchin) and its chick. (D) A guppy (Poecilia reticulata; photo by S. Nordell).
Fig. 3. The role of PI and other forms of ISI in relation to genetic and cultural transmission. During development, individuals learn environmental types through maternal effects and imitation. Learning can involve private or social information. As a major source of information extracted from conspecifics, ISI and PI in particular lead to the emergence of culture. The effects of ISI and PI as selective agents for better learning and imitation feed back to the gene pool (hence to genetic evolution). Both genetic and cultural information are then transmitted to the next generation. An important difference between genetic and cultural transmission is the latter's capacity to transmit traits both horizontally and obliquely. [Adapted from (58)]
