Starlings, like human shoppers, are influenced by context
Research into decision-making by European starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris ) may help to explain why many animals, including humans, sometimes exhibit irrational preferences. A study by Oxford University scientists in which starlings pecked on different coloured keys to gain a food reward shows that the birds pay too much attention to context: this makes them vulnerable to the sort of tricks that marketing specialists use to try to make human shoppers choose one product over another. A report of the research is published in this week's Science . The researchers use a supermarket metaphor to explain irrational preferences: Budget supermarket Starbuy sells a range of tomatoes that includes Redgold as its highest quality option. Its rival Poshchoice sells a superior range that includes Goldquest, a variety superior to Redgold but at the bottom of Poshchoice's upmarket range. Because other tomato alternatives are available in each supermarket, on regular shopping trips shoppers experience a positive feeling when they see Redgold ("I'll take it, it's the best around") and a negative one towards Goldquest ("I'll see if there's a better one"). On rare occasions where both varieties are presented side by side, shoppers' choices will be influenced by these emotional memories, upping the preference for the manifestly inferior Redgold, because it is remembered as a winner.
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