Assessing the association between animal color and behavior: A meta-analysis of experimental studies

Color varies in pattern and degree across the tree of life. In animals, genetic variation in color is hypothesized to have pleiotropic effects on a variety of behaviors, due to shared dependence on underlying biochemical pathways. Such pleiotropy can constrain the independent evolution of color and behavior. Although associations between color and behavior have been reported, this relationship has not yet been addressed across a broad taxonomic scale with a formal meta-analysis. We used a phylogenetic meta-analytic approach to examine the relationship between individual variation in aggressive behavior and variation in multiple colors. Seventy-four studies met our inclusion criteria (vertebrates = 70; invertebrates = 4). After accounting for phylogeny and correcting for publication bias, there was a positive association between measures of aggression and degree or area of coloration (mean = 0.248, 95% CI = (0.044, 0.477)). Because this positive association was not restricted to melanin-..., , , # Color and Behavior Meta-analysis Data

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5tk](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5tk)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data was collected from multiple studies to be included in the meta-analysis.

### Files and variables

#### File: meta\_complete\_data2.csv

**Description:** The file includes data collected from each paper in the meta-analysis.

##### Variables

* X: row number
* Authors: authors of paper
* Publication.Year: year of publication
* Study: Unique name for each paper (e.g., Lehtonen 2014 - 1 and Lehtonen 2014 - 2). The - number indicates the same paper with multiple effect size measures.
* Species: species name
* Geographic: Geographic location of where the organisms were collects to country level
* Vert_Invert: If the species was a vertebrate or invertebrate
* Color1-Color3: color of the organisms
* Pattern: location of color on the body of the organism
* Classification: Color class (e.g., melanocortin, carotenoid,...