DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5tk
title: Data from: Assessing the association between animal color and behavior: A meta-analysis of experimental studies

description: Color varies in pattern and degree across the tree of life. In animals,
 genetic variation in color is hypothesized to have pleiotropic effects on
 a variety of behaviors, due to shared dependence on underlying biochemical
 pathways. Such pleiotropy can constrain the independent evolution of color
 and behavior. Although associations between color and behavior have been
 reported, this relationship has not yet been addressed across a broad
 taxonomic scale with a formal meta-analysis. We used a phylogenetic
 meta-analytic approach to examine the relationship between individual
 variation in aggressive behavior and variation in multiple colors.
 Seventy-four studies met our inclusion criteria (vertebrates = 70;
 invertebrates = 4). After accounting for phylogeny and correcting for
 publication bias, there was a positive association between measures of
 aggression and degree or area of coloration (mean = 0.248, 95% CI =
 (0.044, 0.477)). Because this positive association was not restricted to
 melanin-based coloration, we conclude that this pattern does not strongly
 support the melanin-pleiotropy hypothesis. Because the association was
 also not affected by moderators accounting for individual condition,
 social rank, or age, the results do not strongly support hypotheses that
 condition dependence accounts for relationships between color and
 aggressive behavior. The badge of status hypothesis predicts that
 arbitrary traits can evolve to signal aggression or social dominance. We
 propose that this is the most parsimonious explanation for the patterns we
 observe. Because of lack of evidence for condition dependence in the
 association between color and aggression, we further propose that the
 genetic covariation between traits contributes to the evolution of the
 badges of status.
description: # Color and Behavior Meta-analysis Data
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5tk](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9kd51c5tk) ## Description of the data and file structure The data was collected from multiple studies to be included in the meta-analysis. ### Files and variables #### File: meta\_complete\_data2.csv **Description:** The file includes data collected from each paper in the meta-analysis. ##### Variables * X: row number * Authors: authors of paper * Publication.Year: year of publication * Study: Unique name for each paper (e.g., Lehtonen 2014 - 1 and Lehtonen 2014 - 2). The - number indicates the same paper with multiple effect size measures. * Species: species name * Geographic: Geographic location of where the organisms were collects to country level * Vert_Invert: If the species was a vertebrate or invertebrate * Color1-Color3: color of the organisms * Pattern: location of color on the body of the organism * Classification: Color class (e.g., melanocortin, carotenoid, or structural) * Eu_Pheomelanin: for melanocortin classification, if the color was eumelaninin, pheomelanin, or N/A (not applicable)  * Age_Controlled: how age was controlled in the study or not (e.g., uncontrolled, same age, or covariate in the model) * Social_Rank_Controlled: how social rank was controlled in the study or not (e.g., dummy used, isolated before study, video, new individual against them) * Obs_vs_Exp: observational (Obs) or experimental study (Exp) * Condition_Stats: how condition of the animal was controlled in the study or not (e.g., covariate, NS non-significant, uncontrolled)  * Condition: what measure they used to control condition or not (e.g., length, weight, length and weight, none) * Age: maturity of the organisms tested (mature, juvenile, or both mature and juvenile individuals) * Sex: sex of individuals tested (males, females, or both sexes tested) * Location: where the study took place (e.g., in the lab, in the wild) * Season: seasonality of the color (breeding vs year round) * Plasticity: if the color was plastic or not * Aggression: if the aggression measure was a direct or indirect measure of aggression * Aggression.Units: aggression measure units from the paper * Sample.Size to sd2: statistical information pulled from papers to calculate effect sizes * NA indicates not applicable as not all statistical information was in each paper or needed to calculate the effect size * rho to Weight: effect size measures used in analysis ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * [https://github.com/sruckman/meta-analysis](https://github.com/sruckman/meta-analysis) Data was derived from the following sources: Andrews, T. 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