Individual consistency and flexibility in human social information use

Abstract

Copying others appears to be a cost-effective way of obtaining adaptive information, particularly when flexibly employed. However, adult humans differ considerably in their propensity to use information from others, even when this 'social information' is beneficial, raising the possibility that stable individual differences constrain flexibility in social information use. We used two dissimilar decision-making computer games to investigate whether individuals flexibly adjusted their use of social information to current conditions or whether they valued social information similarly in both games. Participants also completed established personality questionnaires. We found that participants demonstrated considerable flexibility, adjusting social information use to current conditions. In particular, individuals employed a 'copy-when-uncertain' social learning strategy, supporting a core, but untested, assumption of influential theoretical models of cultural transmission. Moreover, participants adjusted the amount invested in their decision based on the perceived reliability of personally gathered information combined with the available social information. However, despite this strategic flexibility, participants also exhibited consistent individual differences in their propensities to use and value social information. Moreover, individuals who favoured social information selfreported as more collectivist than others. We discuss the implications of our results for social information use and cultural transmission.

Consistent individual differences in human social learning strategies

“…It is not unlikely that the observed variation in social learning strategies is associated with these dimensions or factors, and this possibility presents an interesting objective for further research. For instance, one might predict that reliance on social information is associated with openness or with an orientation towards collectivism (as opposed to individualism 50 ); in fact, this latter association has recently been reported by Toelch and colleagues 51 . Similarly, one might expect that individuals who focus on payoff-information are inclined to behave more competitively (rather than cooperatively) in social interactions.…”

The Evolution of Individual and Cultural Variation in Social Learning

“…Irrespective of 38 these particular conclusions, these models demonstrate that when the tendency to learn from others 39 can itself be learned from others, then cultural dynamics emerge that we would not expect if social 40 learning were genetically fixed and stable over the lifetime. Individuals with the more-exploratory rover allele, associated with more exploratory behaviour, at the foraging locus showed less social learning than individuals with the sitter allele, associated with less exploratory behaviour Cook et al 2014 [11] Humans (Homo sapiens) Socially dominant individuals showed more social learning, and aggressively dominant individuals showed less social learning, in a computer task Toelch et al 2014 [12] Humans (Homo sapiens) Individuals with higher collectivism showed more social learning in two computer tasks (individualism and narcissism showed no association)…”

“…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…”

“…Irrespective of the wider argument, the studies listed in Table S1 suggest social learning [18][19][20] that generates strong and long-lasting cultural traditions [23,69]. However, 210 stable cultural traditions are also present in other species [11,12], raising the possibility of the social 211 learning of social learning in non-human species also. Once social learning itself can be socially 212 learned, we might expect novel cultural evolutionary dynamics that drive behaviour to new 213 3).…”

“…Culture: at a minimum, simply denotes the presence of social learning within a population [1]; 8 narrower definitions require the presence of stable between-population differences in behaviour as a 9 result of social learning ('cultural traditions' [9,12]) or the accumulation of information via social 10 learning over successive generations ('cumulative culture' [22]) 11 Social learning strategies: relatively high-level heuristics that describe from whom individuals 12 learn (e.g. copy-successful-individuals or copy-the-majority) and when they learn from others (e.g.…”