Fear in animals: a meta-analysis and review of risk assessment

The amount of risk animals perceive in a given circumstance (i.e. their degree of 'fear') is a difficult motivational state to study. While many studies have used flight initiation distance as a proxy for fearfulness and examined the factors influencing the decision to flee, there is no general understanding of the relative importance of these factors. By identifying factors with large effect sizes, we can determine whether anti-predator strategies reduce fear, and we gain a unique perspective on the coevolution of predator and anti-predator behaviour. Based on an extensive review and formal meta-analysis, we found that predator traits that were associated with greater risk (speed, size, directness of…

• SO
  School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology Division of Life Sciences, Korea University