Supernormal Stimuli

Definition

Supernormal stimuli are any stimuli that elicit an instinctual reaction more strongly than does the stimulus for which the instinct evolved.

Introduction

Ethologist Niko Tinbergen won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Biology for his research on instinctive behavior in animals. Tinbergen used various dummies to elicit nurturing, mating, and fighting behaviors. He and his students constructed fake eggs which birds would sit on, artificial female butterflies which male butterflies courted, and models of male fish which other males attacked. Some of the dummies were ingeniously unrealistic to elucidate exactly what characteristics triggered the behaviors. Territorial male stickleback fish will not attack a fish-shaped model if its belly isn’t red, but they violently pursue some very unfish-like models when the underside is red.

Perhaps the most interesting of Tinbergen’s discoveries is that dummies can be devised which surpass the power of any natural stimuli. Tinbergen coined the phrase