Publications in Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Social information expands individual sensing of resources in dynamic ecosystems, yet why social strategies evolve in resource pursuit remains unsettled. We posit that resource variability along three axes mediates the emergence of collective sensing by altering the value of social information for maximizing individual resource gain and minimizing its variance. Drawing from empirical examples across taxa and scales, we offer testable predictions under the hypothesis that resource variability shapes this dual value of social information. Variance-induced risks to survival represent an underappreciated factor amplifying the value of social signals and cues, especially when resources are patchy, ephemeral, and abundant. This perspective bridges classical ecological models and burgeoning interest in collective behavior, providing the ‘why’ underlying the ‘how’ of sensory collectives.