Plants and Animals Gamble Too!

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Friday, August 5th, 2016 | Written by Stephen Smith

Many people view gambling as a vice and paint it as one of the ills of society, while others argue that the desire to take risks is innate, and that gambling is a natural extension of that urge. A new research study supports the latter opinion, revealing that humans are not the only species that is willing to take on risks when there is a chance for gain.

About the Study

The study in question, entitled “Pea Plants Show Risk Sensitivity“, was performed by researchers from Ben-Gurion University and Tel-Hai Academic College in Israel, and Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Its purpose was to determine whether or not plants “gambled” and accepted risk whenever there was a chance for considerable gain. Previous studies had shown that animals will sometimes take calculated risks to increase their access to large amounts of food, with subsequent findings serving as the inspiration for the latest research.

For the study, the scientists studied how pea plants grew in response to limited supplies of food. They began by observing what would happen when a pea plant was given one bowl with a steady, plentiful supply of food, and the other was given large amounts of food but at an irregular rate. Across the board, the pea plants grew toward the bowl that had the regular supply of food.

After observing this predictable behavior, the researchers changed the conditions on the pea plants. They continued to place a steady supply of food in one bowl, but cut down on the amount of food provided. They continued to add large amounts of food to the other bowl on an erratic schedule.

With the steady supply of food becoming meager, some pea plants began to grow toward the bowl where it had the chance of getting more food, even if it was not as often. Essentially, the pea plants were betting on the bowl where they may or may not get a steady supply of food in the hope of getting larger meals than the slim pickings provided at regular intervals in the other bowl.

In Their Own Way, The Plants Were Gambling

The researchers noted that they are not yet able to explain how the plants managed to adapt to the conditions. Because plants do not have a brain or even a nervous system, it stands to reason that they did not make a logical choice to bet on the bowl with the bigger potential food supply. Still, they somehow managed to grow in its direction. It will be interesting to see what can be uncovered about this adaptive behavior in the future, although offering a partial explanation, professor of Zoology at Oxford University, Alex Kacelnik, said:

“We do not conclude that plants are intelligent in the sense used for humans or other animals. But rather that complex and interesting behaviours can theoretically be predicted as biological adaptations—and executed by organisms—on the basis of processes evolved to exploit natural opportunities efficiently.”

Chimps Are Risk Adverse

While some pea plants aren’t afraid to gamble, a Duke University study found that chimpanzees prefer to play it safer. Researchers at the university experimented to see whether monkeys would prefer to be guaranteed one banana, or to take a chance and receive one, two or no bananas. The chimps demonstrated a desire to get a banana every time. Commenting on the finding, Christopher Krupenye from Duke University, Evolutionary Anthropology Department, explained:

“Historically, researchers thought these kinds of biases must be a product of human culture, or the way we’re socialized, or our experience with financial markets. But the fact that chimps and bonobos, our closest living primate relatives, exhibit the same biases suggests they’re deeply rooted in our biology.”

Interestingly, pigeons seem to exhibit the opposite type of behavior, and when presented with a slot machine which offered the chance to receive smaller regular rewards, or one which promised a potential jackpot of up to 10 pellets, the pigeons invariably opted to gamble. Furthermore, they did so despite being otherwise rewarded with 50% more pellets if they had opted to take the safer route. Elaborating further, psychologist Professor Thomas Zentall and Jessica Stagner from the University of Kentucky explained:

“The results of these experiments suggest that pigeons show a tendency to make maladaptive decisions similar to those of humans. That is, pigeons prefer a signal for a low probability, high payoff alternative over a signal for a certain low payoff alternative that on average provides 50% more reinforcement.”