Does the history of option quality affect nest site choice in the acorn ant?

During decision−making, animals consider not only the current but also the past quality of options. For example, when humans evaluate performance (e.g. sales) of employees, they do not only consider the average performance but also the trend of performance　ascending performance is often viewed as more favorable than descending performance. In our study, we test if non-human animals have a similar bias when they are evaluating options using house-hunting by the acorn ant, Temnothorax curvispinosus, as our model system. Our data show that when nest-site quality is static over time, ant colonies tend to prefer the nest site which was better (i.e. darker) between two nest options. However, when the nest quality changes—one improves and the other worsens—over time, more colonies choose the low-quality, but improving, nest than the high-quality, but worsening, nest. These results suggest that a continuous change of option quality may influence evaluation. We discuss alternative explanations f..., Experimental procedure
Prior to the experiment, we induced a colony emigration to an empty home nest placed in the middle of the experimental arena (19 x 27 cm) (see Sasaki and Pratt 2018 for the detail of the emigration procedure). After 24 hours, we introduced two kinds of potential target nests, namely an “improving” nest and a “worsening” nest, one on each side (Figure 1a). These target nests were identical to the home nest except the interior light level, which was controlled by putting light filters on the roof (see Supplementary Information for the detail of the nest design; Figure S1). The home nest was always darker than target nests to prevent early migration. The improving nest initially had a very bright interior light level (approx. 1600 lux) but became darker, and more preferable (Franks et al. 2003; Sasaki et al. 2019), over time (Figure 1b). The interior light level of the worsening nest, on the other hand, was initially very dark (approx. 3 lux) but became brighter, an..., , # Data from: Does the history of option quality affect nest site choice in the acorn ant?

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zw3r228gb](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zw3r228gb)

In our study, we test if non-human animals have a similar bias when they are evaluating options using house-hunting by the acorn ant, *Temnothorax curvispinosus*, as our model system. Our data show that when nest-site quality is static over time, ant colonies tend to prefer the nest site which was better (i.e. darker) between two nest options. However, when the nest quality changes—one improves and the other worsens—over time, more colonies choose the low-quality, but improving, nest than the high-quality, but worsening, nest.

## Description of the data and file structure

There are eight columns (A-H): colony ID, choice based on the majority rule, choice based on the consensus rule, condition, number of workers, number of brood items, and the test order.

There were four conditions. In the trend condition, the in...