The when and who of social learning and conformist transmission

Muthukrishna, Michael; Morgan, Thomas J. H.; Henrich, Joseph

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.05.004

Cited by 163 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Moreover, variance is introduced by other factors, such as mistakes in transmission and individual differences in social learning and conformist biases (e.g. higher IQ individuals may be less conformist [52]). Finally, the same principles that lead to larger populations possessing more complex technologies [33] can also shape and hone the mechanisms of cultural transmission, such as pedagogy and language.…”

Section: (A) Increasing Innovation Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These strategies and biases include direct and indirect cues of the popularity of cultural traits (e.g. conformist transmission bias; [52]), direct and indirect cues that a potential model has adaptive know-how worth learning (e.g. success and prestige biases; [35,53]), filtering mechanisms to assess the accuracy of information and sincerity of models (e.g.…”

Section: (A) the Evolution Of Cultural Brainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Innovation in the collective brain

Muthukrishna

Henrich

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 15 to a theme issue 'Innovation in animals and humans: understanding the origins and development of novel and creative behaviour'. Innovation is often assumed to be the work of a talented few, whose products are passed on to the masses. Here, we argue that innovations are instead an emergent property of our species' cultural learning abilities, applied within our societies and social networks. Our societies and social networks act as collective brains. We outline how many human brains, which evolved primarily for the acquisition of culture, together beget a collective brain. Within these collective brains, the three main sources of innovation are serendipity, recombination and incremental improvement. We argue that rates of innovation are heavily influenced by (i) sociality, (ii) transmission fidelity, and (iii) cultural variance. We discuss some of the forces that affect these factors. These factors can also shape each other. For example, we provide preliminary evidence that transmission efficiency is affected by sociality-languages with more speakers are more efficient. We argue that collective brains can make each of their constituent cultural brains more innovative. This perspective sheds light on traits, such as IQ, that have been implicated in innovation. A collective brain perspective can help us understand otherwise puzzling findings in the IQ literature, including group differences, heritability differences and the dramatic increase in IQ test scores over time.

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Section: (A) Increasing Innovation Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (A) the Evolution Of Cultural Brainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation in the collective brain

Muthukrishna

Henrich

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

245

265

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“…Others have found that performance in an asocial learning task subsequently 115 predicts social information use, although again in opposite directions: two studies found that better 116 individual learners were more likely to use social information [41,42], two studies that they were 117 less likely [43,44]. Three studies with humans have linked social learning to relatively stable 118 individual differences, specifically social dominance [45], collectivism [46] and IQ [47]. 119…”

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confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Individual and Cultural Variation in Social Learning

Mesoudi

Chang

Dall

et al. 2016

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

209

189

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There has recently been huge growth in studies of social learning and culture (see Glossary) across 33 diverse species [1,2] successful individuals or copying the majority: [13,25]), much less attention has been devoted to 49 documenting and explaining individual variation in these phenomena within species, or among 50 groups of individuals (e.g. populations) within species. 51 52In experiments, typically the demonstration of social learning, or a particular mechanism or strategy 53 of social learning, in enough individuals or on enough trials to reach statistical significance leads to 54 the claim that this phenomenon is present in this particular species. The authors of one recent study 55

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“…There is some evidence linking this individual variation to other individual differences, such as personality (87) or intelligence (88,89), but these correlations are weak and exploratory. There is also evidence of cross-cultural variation in social learning, specifically higher social learning in collectivistic East Asian societies than in individualistic Western societies (90,91).…”

Section: Recent Research Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pursuing Darwin’s curious parallel: Prospects for a science of cultural evolution

Mesoudi

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

101

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In the past few decades, scholars from several disciplines have pursued the curious parallel noted by Darwin between the genetic evolution of species and the cultural evolution of beliefs, skills, knowledge, languages, institutions, and other forms of socially transmitted information. Here, I review current progress in the pursuit of an evolutionary science of culture that is grounded in both biological and evolutionary theory, but also treats culture as more than a proximate mechanism that is directly controlled by genes. Both genetic and cultural evolution can be described as systems of inherited variation that change over time in response to processes such as selection, migration, and drift. Appropriate differences between genetic and cultural change are taken seriously, such as the possibility in the latter of nonrandomly guided variation or transformation, blending inheritance, and one-to-many transmission. The foundation of cultural evolution was laid in the late 20th century with population-genetic style models of cultural microevolution, and the use of phylogenetic methods to reconstruct cultural macroevolution. Since then, there have been major efforts to understand the sociocognitive mechanisms underlying cumulative cultural evolution, the consequences of demography on cultural evolution, the empirical validity of assumed social learning biases, the relative role of transformative and selective processes, and the use of quantitative phylogenetic and multilevel selection models to understand past and present dynamics of society-level change. I conclude by highlighting the interdisciplinary challenges of studying cultural evolution, including its relation to the traditional social sciences and humanities. cultural evolution | cumulative culture | gene-culture coevolution | human evolution | social learningThe formation of different languages and of distinct species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel. . . Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, p 90T his quote from Charles Darwin (1) draws a parallel between, on the one hand, the genetic evolution of species, and on the other, cultural change (i.e., changes in socially learned information, such as beliefs, knowledge, tools, technology, attitudes, norms, and, as Darwin mentions, languages). This idea is the basic premise of cultural evolution: Cultural change constitutes a Darwinian evolutionary process that shares key characteristics with the genetic evolution of species. The emergence of this second evolutionary process saw an unprecedented extension of genetic evolution by allowing organisms to adapt more rapidly to, and more powerfully create and shape, their environments.Since the 1980s, this parallel between genetic and cultural evolution has been pursued by scholars from a range of disciplines across the social, behavioral, and biological sciences. In this article, I review the current state of this interdisciplinary effort, focusing on topics of major recent research interest. No new theories...

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The when and who of social learning and conformist transmission

Cited by 163 publications

References 32 publications

Innovation in the collective brain

Innovation in the collective brain

The Evolution of Individual and Cultural Variation in Social Learning

Pursuing Darwin’s curious parallel: Prospects for a science of cultural evolution

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