Résumé

Classically, collective movements are viewed as the outcome of one individual’s initiation (the leader) for departure, by which all or some of the other group members abide. Individuals assuming leadership have often been considered to hold a specific social status. This hierarchical or centralized control model has been challenged by recent theoretical and experimental findings, suggesting that leadership can be more distributed. I will describe in this talk the different underlying mechanisms at work at each step of the decision-making process and show how they are combined to reach efficient and exact decisions. I will also present the last experiments we conducted in domestic horses which demonstrate that successful following is dependent of the charisma of the leader and how much the followers trust it.

Conférencier

Odile PETIT CNRS