Data from: Social learning in a high-risk environment: incomplete disregard for the ‘minnow that cried pike’ results in culturally-transmitted neophobia

Many prey species rely on conspecifics to gather information about unknown predation threats, but little is known about the role of varying environmental conditions on the efficacy of social learning. We examined predator-naïve minnows that had the opportunity to learn about predators from experienced models that were raised in either a low-risk or high-risk environment. There were striking differences in behaviour among models; high-risk models showed a weaker response to the predator cue and became neophobic in response to the control cue (a novel odour). Observers that were previously paired with low-risk models acquired a strong antipredator response only to the predator cue. However, observers that interacted with high-risk models, displayed a much weaker response to the predator odour and a weak neophobic response to the novel odour. This is the first study reporting such different outcomes of social learning under different environmental conditions, and the first to document cultural transmission of a novel behavioural phenotype such as neophobia. If such a transfer is considered similar to secondary traumatization in humans, culturally-transmitted neophobia in minnows may provide a good model system for understanding the social ecology of fear disorders.