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

• Published in: Behavioral ecology and sociobiology Vol. 72; no. 3; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Royauté, Raphaël, Berdal, Monica Anderson, Garrison, Courtney R., Dochtermann, Ned A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer 01.03.2018; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal Ecology; Behavior; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; ecology; Females; genetic correlation; Growth rate; Hypotheses; Immune response; Integration; Invertebrates; Life history; Life Sciences; Males; Meta-analysis; Original Article; Pace-of-life syndromes: a framework for the adaptive integration of behaviour; phenotype; phenotypic variation; Phenotypic variations; Physiology; physiology and life-history; prediction; reproduction; Systematic review; TOPICAL COLLECTION PACE-OF-LIFE SYNDROMES: A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ADAPTIVE INTEGRATION OF BEHAVIOUR, PHYSIOLOGY AND LIFE HISTORY; Vertebrates; Zoology; Phenotypic integration; Personality; Behavioral syndrome; Covariation
• ISSN: 0340-5443; 1432-0762
• DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2472-z

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 a lso 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.