Risky Hybrid Foraging: The Impact of Risk, Reward Value, and Prevalence on Foraging Behavior in Hybrid Visual Search

In hybrid foraging, foragers search for multiple targets in multiple patches throughout the foraging session, mimicking a range of real-world scenarios. This research examines outcome uncertainty, the prevalence of different target types, and the reward value of targets in human hybrid foraging. Our empirical findings show a consistent tendency toward risk-averse behavior in hybrid foraging. That is, people display a preference for certainty and actively avoid taking risks. While altering the prevalence or reward value of the risky targets does influence people's aversion to risk, the overall effect of risk remains dominant. Additionally, simulation results suggest that the observed risk-averse strategy is suboptimal in the sense that it prevents foragers from maximizing their overall returns. These results underscore the crucial role of outcome uncertainty in shaping hybrid foraging behavior and shed light on potential theoretical developments bridging theories in decision making and hybrid foraging. Public Significance Statement Hybrid foraging characterizes a wide range of real-world searching scenarios where people search for multiple potential items across multiple patches. However, in the real world, rewards are often uncertain. The present study highlights the important role of risk sensitivity in shaping hybrid foraging behavior when potential items vary in prevalence, reward, and outcome uncertainty. Our findings reveal that being cautious about taking risks can lead people to miss out on opportunities to maximize their overall gains in hybrid foraging.