What ice-fishing competitions reveal about human decision-making

(Press-News.org) The international research team used GPS watches and wearable cameras to observe the behavior of 74 experienced ice fishers during competitions in eastern Finland. Across 477 fishing trips on ten different lakes, they recorded more than 16,000 decisions about where to fish and when to leave a location. Using these high-resolution movement and contextual data, the scientists built computational models to understand the underlying decision-making processes. 

Social information as a compass—but not always 

The analysis shows that ice fishers combine three types of information: their personal catch experience, the behavior of other participants, and ecological features such as the structure of the lakebed. “Whether people rely more on others or on themselves depends to some degree on their own success,” says first author Alexander Schakowski, a postdoctoral researcher from the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Those who are successful in catching fish rely more on their own knowledge; those who remain unsuccessful orient themselves more strongly toward other anglers. 

After a catch, anglers intensify their search in the immediate vicinity (“area-restricted search”). In areas with high participant density, this effect is amplified. The decision to leave a spot generally follows simple criteria: someone who has not caught a fish for a long time is more likely to move on.  

Differences by age and gender 

There were consistent differences in the extent to which participants used social information and avoided unsuccessful areas. For example, women relied more on social information than men, while older participants stayed longer at locations and were less likely to avoid unsuccessful areas. When lakes were rich in fish, anglers changed spots more quickly. 

Relevance for research and practice 

The methodological approach combining high-precision field measurements with simulation-based decision models also provides a blueprint for future studies of human cognition under real-world conditions. “We wanted to get out of the lab. The methods commonly used in cognitive psychology are difficult to scale to large, real-world social contexts. Instead, we took inspiration from studies of animal collective behavior, which routinely use cameras to automatically record behavior and GPS to provide continuous movement data for large groups of animals,” says project leader Ralf Kurvers. He is Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Principal Investigator at the Cluster of Excellence “Science of Intelligence” at TU Berlin. 

“Our results not only help us understand human search behavior in complex environments; our method could also be tested in resource and conservation management—for example, in understanding how ‘hotspots’ form and how overuse—in this case, overfishing—might be prevented,” adds co-author Raine Kortet, Professor in Aquatic Ecology at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu.  

At a glance 

Ice-fishing competitions as a model for decision-making research: An international research team of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Cluster of Excellence “Science of Intelligence” at TU Berlin and the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu organized ice-fishing competitions in eastern Finland to study human foraging decisions in natural settings, including the influence of social context, personal experience, and environmental information. 

Participants and competitions: A total of 74 experienced ice fishers took part, over two years, in ten three-hour competitions on ten lakes in eastern Finland. Researchers recorded 477 individual foraging trips and 16,055 decisions about fishing locations. 

Interaction of personal experience and social cues: Successful anglers relied more strongly on their own experiences, while less successful participants used the presence of others as an indicator of promising locations. Environmental information had only a minor influence. 

Rules for staying or moving on: The decision to leave a fishing spot is primarily driven by the time without a catch, with the first catch extending the duration of stay. Social density further increases the likelihood of staying. 

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