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Paceless life? A meta-analysis of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis

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Abstract

The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis predicts that individual differences in behavior should integrate with morphological, physiological, and life-history traits along a slow to fast pace-of-life continuum. For example, individuals with a “slow” pace-of-life are expected to exhibit a slower growth rate, delayed reproduction, longer lifespans, have stronger immune responses, and are expected to avoid risky situations relative to “fast” individuals. If supported, this hypothesis would help resolve ecological and evolutionary questions regarding the origin and maintenance of phenotypic variation. Support for the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis has, however, been mixed. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of 42 articles and 179 estimates testing the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis as it applies to the integration of behaviors with physiological or life-history traits. We found little overall support for the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis with the mean support estimated as r = 0.06. Support for the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis was significantly higher in invertebrates (r = 0.23) than vertebrates (r = 0.02) and significantly higher when based on phenotypic (r = 0.10) versus genetic correlations (r = − 0.09). We also found that females exhibited correlations between behavior and life-history and physiology that were opposite the predictions of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis (r = − 0.16) and that these correlations significantly differed from those observed in males (r = 0.01) or males and females pooled (r = 0.12). It was also the case that there was little support for the hypothesis when life-history and physiological traits were independently analyzed (behavior × life-history: r = 0.12; behavior × physiology: r = 0.04). Exploratory post hoc analyses revealed that correlations of behavior with growth rate and hormone levels were more likely to show support for the predictions of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis. The lack of overall support found in our analyses suggests that general assertions regarding phenotypic integration due to “pace-of-life” should be re-evaluated.

Significance statement

The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis has been proposed as an overall organizational framework for the integration of behavioral, life-history, and physiological traits. This hypothesis provides potentially profound insights into how and why phenotypic traits might covary and why phenotypic variation may be maintained within populations. Over the last 7 years, this organizational framework has been intensively investigated as it pertains to relationships between behavior and other traits. Here, we conducted an overall analysis of whether the hypothesis was supported. Despite considerable research investment across behavioral ecology, we did not find that available data supported the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis. This suggests that either the hypothesis has been inappropriately tested or is not generally applicable.

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Data availability

Analyses reported in this article can be reproduced using the data and statistical code provided by Royauté et al. (2018), topical collection on Pace-of-life syndromes and via provided supplemental information.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P.O. Montiglio and D. Réale for important discussions and for directing us to particular studies not identified by our searches. We also thank Julia Bowsher, M. Dammhahn, and three anonymous reviewers for comments provided on an earlier draft of this manuscript. RR was supported by a North Dakota EPSCoR grant to NAD. CRG and MAB were supported by the North Dakota State University Department of Biological Sciences.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, 58105, USA

    Raphaël Royauté, Monica Anderson Berdal, Courtney R. Garrison & Ned A. Dochtermann

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  1. Raphaël Royauté
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  2. Monica Anderson Berdal
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  3. Courtney R. Garrison
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  4. Ned A. Dochtermann
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Correspondence to Ned A. Dochtermann.

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Communicated by M. Dammhahn

This article is a contribution to the Topical Collection Pace-of-life syndromes: a framework for the adaptive integration of behaviour, physiology and life-history – Guest Editors: Melanie Dammhahn, Niels J. Dingemanse, Petri T. Niemelä, Denis Réale

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Royauté, R., Berdal, M.A., Garrison, C.R. et al. Paceless life? A meta-analysis of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 72, 64 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-018-2472-z

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