The evolution of social learning rules: Payoff-biased and frequency-dependent biased transmission

Kendal, Jeremy; Giraldeau, Luc‐Alain; Laland, Kevin N.

doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.05.029

Cited by 155 publications

(157 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Nakahashi [26], Wakano and Aoki [35] and Kendal et al [19] all challenged aspects of Henrich and Boyd's findings, by reporting a negative relationship between the stability of the environment and the reliance on conformist bias. The reliance on conformity tends to be larger when the cycle of environmental change is shorter (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Tradeoffs between the strength of conformity and number of conformists in variable environments

Kandler

Laland

2013

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Abstract. Organisms often respond to environmental change phenotypically, through learning strategies that enhance fitness in variable and changing conditions. But which strategies should we expect in population exposed to those conditions? We address this question by developing a mathematical model that specifies the consequences of different mixtures of individual and social learning strategies on the frequencies of different cultural variants in temporally and spatially changing environments. Assuming that alternative cultural variants are differently well-adapted to diverse environmental conditions, we are able to evaluate which mixture of learning strategies maximizes the mean fitness of the population. We find that, even in rapidly changing environments, a high proportion of the population will always engage in social learning. In those environments, the highest adaptation levels are achieved through relatively high fractions of individual learning and a strong conformist bias. We establish a negative relationship between the proportion of the population learning socially and the strength of conformity operating in a population: strong conformity requires fewer conformists (i.e. larger proportion of individual learning), while many conformists can only be found when conformist transmission is weak. Investigations of cultural diversity show that in frequently changing environments high levels of adaptation require high level of cultural diversity. Finally, we demonstrate how the developed mathematical framework can be applied to time series of usage or occurrence data of cultural traits. Using Approximate Bayesian Computation we are able to infer information about the underlying learning processes that could have produced observed patterns of variation in the dataset. Permanent repository link

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Tradeoffs between the strength of conformity and number of conformists in variable environments

Kandler

Laland

2013

Journal of Theoretical Biology

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“…Examples of cultural traits that are likely to exhibit frequencydependent transmission are fashion trends (89), career choices (12), and baby names (90). Conformist transmission is likely to dominate when the environment is relatively stable and common cultural traits are well adapted to that environment (86,91).…”

Section: Nonrandom Assortment and Biased Transmissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Creanza

Kolodny

Feldman

2017

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

336

203

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Human cultural traits-behaviors, ideas, and technologies that can be learned from other individuals-can exhibit complex patterns of transmission and evolution, and researchers have developed theoretical models, both verbal and mathematical, to facilitate our understanding of these patterns. Many of the first quantitative models of cultural evolution were modified from existing concepts in theoretical population genetics because cultural evolution has many parallels with, as well as clear differences from, genetic evolution. Furthermore, cultural and genetic evolution can interact with one another and influence both transmission and selection. This interaction requires theoretical treatments of gene-culture coevolution and dual inheritance, in addition to purely cultural evolution. In addition, cultural evolutionary theory is a natural component of studies in demography, human ecology, and many other disciplines. Here, we review the core concepts in cultural evolutionary theory as they pertain to the extension of biology through culture, focusing on cultural evolutionary applications in population genetics, ecology, and demography. For each of these disciplines, we review the theoretical literature and highlight relevant empirical studies. We also discuss the societal implications of the study of cultural evolution and of the interactions of humans with one another and with their environment. cultural evolution | mathematical models | gene-culture coevolution | niche construction | demography H uman culture encompasses ideas, behaviors, and artifacts that can be learned and transmitted between individuals and can change over time (1). This process of transmission and change is reminiscent of Darwin's principle of descent with modification through natural selection, and Darwin himself drew this explicit link in the case of languages: "The formation of different languages and of distinct species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel" (2, 3). Theory underpins most scientific endeavors, and, in the 1970s, researchers began to lay the groundwork for cultural evolutionary theory, building on the neo-Darwinian synthesis of genetics and evolution by using verbal, diagrammatic, and mathematical models (4-8). These models are, by necessity, approximations of reality (9), but because they require researchers to specify their assumptions and extract the most important features from complex processes, they have proven exceedingly useful in advancing the study of cultural evolution (10). Here, we review the field of cultural evolutionary theory as it pertains to the extension of biology through culture. We focus on human culture because the bulk of cultural evolutionary models are human-centric and certain processes such as cumulative culture seem to be unique to humans. However, numerous nonhuman species also exhibit cultural transmission, and we consider the areas of overlap between models of human and animal culture in Discussion.The study of cultural evolution is im...

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“…Because of this, social learning and its grouplevel consequences have been the object of considerable scientific scrutiny. Laboratory studies and theoretical models have gone hand-in-hand in respectively identifying the social learning strategies that people use (15)(16)(17)(18) and determining how these different strategies are shaped by selection (19)(20)(21) and affect the outcome of cultural evolution (22)(23)(24)(25)(26). The framework of cultural evolution has been successfully applied for a range of purposes, such as understanding the spread and the loss of technologies in human societies (27,28) and inferring the ancestry of cultural traits such as language and political organization (29)(30)(31).…”

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confidence: 99%

Focus on the success of others leads to selfish behavior

Berg

Molleman

Weissing

2015

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

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It has often been argued that the spectacular cognitive capacities of humans are the result of selection for the ability to gather, process, and use information about other people. Recent studies show that humans strongly and consistently differ in what type of social information they are interested in. Although some individuals mainly attend to what the majority is doing (frequency-based learning), others focus on the success that their peers achieve with their behavior (success-based learning). Here, we show that such differences in social learning have important consequences for the outcome of social interactions. We report on a decision-making experiment in which individuals were first classified as frequencyand success-based learners and subsequently grouped according to their learning strategy. When confronted with a social dilemma situation, groups of frequency-based learners cooperated considerably more than groups of success-based learners. A detailed analysis of the decision-making process reveals that these differences in cooperation are a direct result of the differences in information use. Our results show that individual differences in social learning strategies are crucial for understanding social behavior.social learning | cooperation | individual differences | cultural evolution | personality A cquiring information about others is a prominent feature of the human behavioral repertoire (1-3). Observing the behavior of others can allow individuals to improve their own knowledge and skills, but it can also be instrumental in anticipating how others will behave in future social interactions. Clues that help to predict how others will behave can allow for better coordination, or for being able to outsmart others for personal gain (4, 5). Indeed, the ability to keep a mental tab about the past actions of others has been put forward as one of the main mechanisms that allowed for the evolution of cooperation in humans (6, 7).This focus on social information comes with a spectacular capacity to imitate. Imitation and other forms of social learning govern the spread of information between individuals and are therefore at the basis of cultural change. Indeed, it has been argued that these mechanisms of transmission underlie a process of cultural evolution, which is in many ways analogous to genetic evolution (8-10). Social learning has allowed humans to rapidly adapt to all kinds of environmental circumstances and is ultimately responsible for the wide variety of languages, habits, forms of organization, and social norms that are found across cultures (11)(12)(13)(14). Because of this, social learning and its grouplevel consequences have been the object of considerable scientific scrutiny. Laboratory studies and theoretical models have gone hand-in-hand in respectively identifying the social learning strategies that people use (15-18) and determining how these different strategies are shaped by selection (19-21) and affect the outcome of cultural evolution (22-26). The framework of cultural evolution has b...

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The evolution of social learning rules: Payoff-biased and frequency-dependent biased transmission

Cited by 155 publications

References 24 publications

Tradeoffs between the strength of conformity and number of conformists in variable environments

Tradeoffs between the strength of conformity and number of conformists in variable environments

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Focus on the success of others leads to selfish behavior

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