The effect of individual personality on novel food preference in a social context in the cinereous tit (Parus cinereus)

Exploratory behaviour is one of the best-investigated behavioural traits. However, little is known about the influence of personality on novel food preferences in the social context, i.e., whether knowledge and previous experience can influence individual preference or if the presence of conspecifics can alter their choice. In the present study, we examined in cinereous tit (Parus cinereus) whether individuals with different personality types in the social context will prefer their own previously chosen novel food or change their preference in the presence of conspecifics. Second, we studied how the presence and behaviour of conspecifics may mediate individual personality. We conducted a standardized personality assay (exploratory behaviour) to analyse the individual personality. Birds were trained and provided with three different types of novel human-derived materials in both asocial and social contexts (with a conspecific). We recorded the latency to feed, time spent at the feeder, and the number of visits by fast and slow explorers in the two contexts, i.e., asocial and social. After the analyses of experimental data, we found that fast-exploring cinereous tits preferred peanuts in an asocial context, while slow explorers consumed a greater amount of sunflower seeds. In the social context, individuals of both personality types preferred peanuts to sunflower seeds. Additionally, individuals took less latency to eat food, made more visits to the feeder, and spent more time at the feeder in the social context than in the asocial context. Our findings show that foraging success may be determined by personality and social context. However, personality traits may be subject to constraints arising from correlations with other behavioural traits, and it remains a major challenge to understand the functional significance of individual foraging strategies.