Definition
Uncertainty about future environmental outcomes.
Introduction
Choosing to stay at a party rather than leave depends on which people might still show up. Buying a house depends on future employment prospects. In making decisions, the best course of action often depends not only on current conditions but also on predictions about the future (Frankenhuis et al. 2016b).
Environments might be predictable for two reasons. First, environmental states might be autocorrelated across time (Nettle et al. 2013). If it rains today, it is likely to rain tomorrow. Second, even without such autocorrelation, othercurrent cues might predict future conditions. For example, female parasitic wasps lay more eggs on low-quality hosts if conditions indicate an approaching thunderstorm (dropping barometric pressure) than if conditions indicate a fair summer day (steady barometric pressure). Thunderstorms might kill them, so rather than...
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References
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Frankenhuis, W.E. (2016). Environmental Unpredictability. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1920-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1920-1
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