Do you ever feel as if you could do your bosses’ jobs better than they can? Or do you ever think about marching into a whole new career?
If so, new research from the University of Arizona suggests that you might fit in nicely in an ant colony.
One might think that someone who specializes in a specific task would be best at that job, but with ants it turns out that’s not the case, said Anna Dornhaus, a UA assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who studies insect social organization.
Dornhaus measured the performance of ants with specialized jobs and compared it with those who act as ants-of-all-trades. She learned they perform equally well.
“Everyone thinks that division of labor is great, but there have been few studies that quantify the division of labor with insects,” Dornhaus said.
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The study offers a new twist to the old theory that ants are successful because of job specialization within the colony.
But don’t go quitting your job quite yet. Dornhaus said that although ants learn, too, human job training involves much more sophistication and depth, so people often benefit by sticking with one area of expertise.
