According to a study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, spiders each have individual personalities based on their behavior.

According to a study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, spiders have individual personalities based on their behavior.
Most spiders are solitary, but some species live communally in a web, sharing responsibilities like maintaining and defending the web.

Biologist Jonathon Pruitt from the University of Pittsburgh, studied groups of the social species of spiders.

He found that some individual spiders display more aggressive behavior, and some display less aggressive, or docile behavior.

Most colonies of spiders are reportedly a mix of the two personality types.

Pruitt established three different pairs of spiders as part of his research, putting one aggressive pair together, one docile pair together, and a pair with one of each type.

He observed the spider colonies every summer over the course of six years, and the results showed that although the docile spiders reproduced more quickly they were also more susceptible to being taken over or killed off by more aggressive spiders or predators.

The aggressive pair and the mixed pair reproduced slower, but had a more successful survival rate than the less aggressive spiders because they could defend their web from threats.