Do transmission mechanisms or social systems drive cultural dynamics in socially structured populations?

Nunn, Charles L.; Thrall, Peter H.; Bartz, Kevin; Dasgupta, Tirthankar; Boesch, Christophe

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.02.023

Cited by 47 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…(c) Theoretical model of disease spread Our theoretical model was constructed as a modification of a meta-population model used previously to study the spread of socially transmitted infections [57] and cultural traits [58]. The model was implemented in MATLAB version R2013b.…”

Section: (B) Statistical Analysis Of Comparative Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To explore how multiple parameters influence disease dynamics, we undertook multivariate analyses using random sampling via Latin hypercube sampling, which is a type of stratified Monte Carlo sampling that is more efficient than random sampling or assessing all possible parameter values [58][59][60][61]. As summarized in table 1, nine parameters were varied across flat distributions in the Latin hypercube sample: group size (g), number of subgroups (s), transmission probability within subgroups (b 1 ), transmission probability between subgroups (b 2 ), intrinsic (m b ) and disease-related mortality (m d ), rate of dispersal (i), incubation period (c) and infectious period ( f ).…”

Section: (D) Model Parametrization and Analysis Of Outputmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

Nunn

Jordán

McCabe

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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155

163

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One contribution of 14 to a theme issue 'The sociality-health -fitness nexus in animal societies'. Increased risk of infectious disease is assumed to be a major cost of group living, yet empirical evidence for this effect is mixed. We studied whether larger social groups are more subdivided structurally. If so, the social subdivisions that form in larger groups may act as barriers to the spread of infection, weakening the association between group size and infectious disease. To investigate this 'social bottleneck' hypothesis, we examined the association between group size and four network structure metrics in 43 vertebrate and invertebrate species. We focused on metrics involving modularity, clustering, distance and centralization. In a meta-analysis of intraspecific variation in social networks, modularity showed positive associations with network size, with a weaker but still positive effect in cross-species analyses. Network distance also showed a positive association with group size when using intraspecific variation. We then used a theoretical model to explore the effects of subgrouping relative to other effects that influence disease spread in socially structured populations. Outbreaks reached higher prevalence when groups were larger, but subgrouping reduced prevalence. Subgrouping also acted as a 'brake' on disease spread between groups. We suggest research directions to understand the conditions under which larger groups become more subdivided, and to devise new metrics that account for subgrouping when investigating the links between sociality and infectious disease risk.

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Section: (B) Statistical Analysis Of Comparative Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (D) Model Parametrization and Analysis Of Outputmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

Nunn

Jordán

McCabe

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

155

163

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, work by Nunn and colleagues (Nunn, Thrall et al, 2009) showed how many cognitive biases for social influence had little effect on the final population-level distribution of behaviors. One such bias that did not affect population-level behavior was bias by which individuals preferentially copy the behavior of other "prestigious" individuals.…”

Section: Simple Abms Of Social Learning Can Produce Complex Emergent mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, more recent models have allowed individual agents to use both social learning and individual learning processes (Nunn, Thrall et al, 2009;Franz and Matthews, 2010). Our model follows the more recent literature that incorporates both individual and social learning components within each agent; this more realistically captures how human learning takes place and conforms better to the sort of mixed social/individual learning strategies that are known to produce more adaptive behaviors in prior ABM work (Laland and Kendal, 2003).…”

Section: Our General Abm Builds On Prior Abms Of Social Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

A General Agent-Based Model of Social Learning

Nowak¹,

Matthews²,

Parker³

2017

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“…Although these differences do not invalidate the application of broader Darwinian principles to cultural transmission systems, they do require that new models be developed to explore macroevolutionary dynamics. At present there is a good deal of useful work going on in numerical and simulation modeling of cultural systems to explore the effects of demographic factors on cultural diversity that take into account multiple transmission pathways (e.g., Greenhill et al 2009;Kandler and Steele 2008;Nunn et al 2009;Powell et al 2009). Theory and methods are still evolving, and a number of contributions to this special issue of Human Biology consequently review, develop, and apply different types of models to improve our understanding of cultural macroevolution.…”

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confidence: 99%

Introduction: Demography and Cultural Macroevolution

Steele

Shennan

2009

Human Biology

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The papers in this special issue of Human Biology, which derive from a conference sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Center for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, lay some of the foundations for an empirical macroevolutionary analysis of cultural dynamics. Our premise here is that cultural dynamics-including the stability of traditions and the rate of origination of new variants-are infl uenced by independently occurring demographic processes (population size, structure, and distribution as these vary over time as a result of changes in rates of fertility, mortality, and migration). The contributors focus on three sets of problems relevant to empirical studies of cultural macroevolution: large-scale reconstruction of past population dynamics from archaeological and genetic data; juxtaposition of models and evidence of cultural dynamics using large-scale archaeological and historical data sets; and juxtaposition of models and evidence of cultural dynamics from large-scale linguistic data sets. In this introduction we outline some of the theoretical and methodological issues and briefl y summarize the individual contributions.

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Do transmission mechanisms or social systems drive cultural dynamics in socially structured populations?

Cited by 47 publications

References 35 publications

Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

Infectious disease and group size: more than just a numbers game

A General Agent-Based Model of Social Learning

Introduction: Demography and Cultural Macroevolution

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