Individual Variation in Social Learning Mechanisms Used to Circulate Culture

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Wasielewski
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Learning Mechanisms

Low Self-Control, Substance-Using Peers and Intimate Partners, Pro-Drug Use Definitions, and Inhalant Use Among Convicted Offenders in South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeyong Choi ◽  
Nathan E. Kruis
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Mediation Effects ◽  
Mediation Hypothesis ◽  
Low Self Control ◽  
The Relationship

Hirschi has repeatedly argued that the relationship between social learning variables and crime is a product of “self-selection” driven by low self-control (LSC). Akers’ has suggested that social learning mechanisms, such as affiliations with deviant individuals and acceptance of criminal definitions, can mediate the effects of LSC on crime. Interestingly, there has been little comparative work done to explore this mediation hypothesis in the realm of substance use for offender populations outside of the United States. This study helps fill these gaps in the literature by exploring the potential mediation effects of social learning variables on the relationship between LSC and inhalant use among a sample of 739 male offenders in South Korea. Our results provide strong support for the mediation hypothesis that LSC indirectly influences self-reported inhalant use through social learning mechanisms.

scholarly journals The evolution of social learning mechanisms and cultural phenomena in group foragers

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. van der Post ◽  
Mathias Franz ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Mechanisms

On the Interplay between Extortion and Punishment. An Agent Based Model of "Camorra"

2013 ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Barbara Sonzogni ◽  
Federico Cecconi ◽  
Rosaria Conte
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Italian Region ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Highly Active

This paper presents an Agent-Based Model aimed to reproduce the demographics, economic and employment variables of a Southern Italian region (Campania) where one specific variant of Extortion Racketeering Systems (Erss), camorra, is highly active and prosperous. Preliminary results of a set of simulations show the effects of varying levels of extortion and punishment on the rates of inactivity, employment, etc. of a population of agents endowed with social learning mechanisms

scholarly journals The zone of latent solutions and its relevance to understanding ape cultures

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Tennie ◽  
Elisa Bandini ◽  
Carel P. van Schaik ◽  
Lydia M. Hopper
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Learning Hypothesis ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Do So

Abstract The zone of latent solutions (ZLS) hypothesis provides an alternative approach to explaining cultural patterns in primates and many other animals. According to the ZLS hypothesis, non-human great ape (henceforth: ape) cultures consist largely or solely of latent solutions. The current competing (and predominant) hypothesis for ape culture argues instead that at least some of their behavioural or artefact forms are copied through specific social learning mechanisms (“copying social learning hypothesis”) and that their forms may depend on copying (copying-dependent forms). In contrast, the ape ZLS hypothesis does not require these forms to be copied. Instead, it suggests that several (non-form-copying) social learning mechanisms help determine the frequency (but typically not the form) of these behaviours and artefacts within connected individuals. The ZLS hypothesis thus suggests that increases and stabilisations of a particular behaviour’s or artefact’s frequency can derive from socially-mediated (cued) form reinnovations. Therefore, and while genes and ecology play important roles as well, according to the ape ZLS hypothesis, apes typically acquire the forms of their behaviours and artefacts individually, but are usually socially induced to do so (provided sufficient opportunity, necessity, motivation and timing). The ZLS approach is often criticized—perhaps also because it challenges the current null hypothesis, which instead assumes a requirement of form-copying social learning mechanisms to explain many ape behavioural (and/or artefact) forms. However, as the ZLS hypothesis is a new approach, with less accumulated literature compared to the current null hypothesis, some confusion is to be expected. Here, we clarify the ZLS approach—also in relation to other competing hypotheses—and address misconceptions and objections. We believe that these clarifications will provide researchers with a coherent theoretical approach and an experimental methodology to examine the necessity of form-copying variants of social learning in apes, humans and other species.

scholarly journals Trial-and-error copying of demonstrated actions reveals how fledglings learn to ‘imitate’ their mothers

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1849) ◽  
pp. 20162744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Truskanov ◽  
Arnon Lotem
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Unified Process ◽  
Behavioural Repertoire ◽  
Process Level ◽  
Level Analysis

Understanding how humans and other animals learn to perform an act from seeing it done has been a major challenge in the study of social learning. To determine whether this ability is based on ‘true imitation’, many studies have applied the two-action experimental paradigm, examining whether subjects learn to perform the specific action demonstrated to them. Here, we show that the insights gained from animals' success in two-action experiments may be limited, and that a better understanding is achieved by monitoring subjects' entire behavioural repertoire. Hand-reared house sparrows that followed a model of a mother demonstrator were successful in learning to find seeds hidden under a leaf, using the action demonstrated by the mother (either pushing the leaf or pecking it). However, they also produced behaviours that had not been demonstrated but were nevertheless related to the demonstrated act. This finding suggests that while the learners were clearly influenced by the demonstrator, they did not accurately imitate her. Rather, they used their own behavioural repertoire, gradually fitting it to the demonstrated task solution through trial and error. This process is consistent with recent views on how animals learn to imitate, and may contribute to a unified process-level analysis of social learning mechanisms.

Are Immigrant Youth Less Violent? Specifying the Reasons and Mechanisms

2012 ◽  
Vol 641 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
John MacDonald ◽  
Jessica Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Violence Exposure ◽  
Youth Violence ◽  
Immigrant Families ◽  
Immigrant Youth ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Relative Disadvantage

In this article, the authors present an overview of the relationship between immigrant households and crime and violence, drawing on sociological and public health literature. They present a critique of popular culture perspectives on immigrant families and youth violence, showing that crime and violence outcomes are if anything better for youth in immigrant families than one would expect given the social disadvantages that many immigrant households find themselves living in. They examine the extent to which exposure to violence among immigrant youth is comparably lower than among nonimmigrants living in similar social contexts and the extent to which social control and social learning frameworks can account for the apparent lower prevalence of violence exposure among immigrant youth. Their analyses show a persistent lower rate of violence exposure for immigrant youth compared to similarly situated nonimmigrant youth—and that these differences are not meaningfully understood by observed social control or social learning mechanisms. The authors focus then on the apparent paradox of why youth living in immigrant households in relative disadvantage have lower violence exposure compared to nonimmigrants living in similar social contexts. The answers, they argue, can be viewed from an examination of the effects that living in poverty and underclass neighborhoods for generations has on nonimmigrants in American cities.

scholarly journals Behavioural variation in 172 small-scale societies indicates that social learning is the main mode of human adaptation

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1810) ◽  
pp. 20150061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mathew ◽  
Charles Perreault
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Human Adaptation ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Main Mode

The behavioural variation among human societies is vast and unmatched in the animal world. It is unclear whether this variation is due to variation in the ecological environment or to differences in cultural traditions. Underlying this debate is a more fundamental question: is the richness of humans’ behavioural repertoire due to non-cultural mechanisms, such as causal reasoning, inventiveness, reaction norms, trial-and-error learning and evoked culture, or is it due to the population-level dynamics of cultural transmission? Here, we measure the relative contribution of environment and cultural history in explaining the behavioural variation of 172 Native American tribes at the time of European contact. We find that the effect of cultural history is typically larger than that of environment. Behaviours also persist over millennia within cultural lineages. This indicates that human behaviour is not predominantly determined by single-generation adaptive responses, contra theories that emphasize non-cultural mechanisms as determinants of human behaviour. Rather, the main mode of human adaptation is social learning mechanisms that operate over multiple generations.

scholarly journals Social learning and human mate preferences: a potential mechanism for generating and maintaining between-population diversity in attraction

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1563) ◽  
pp. 366-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony C. Little ◽  
Benedict C. Jones ◽  
Lisa M. DeBruine ◽  
Christine A. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Population Diversity ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
High Status ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Physical Traits ◽  
Different Populations

Inspired by studies demonstrating mate-choice copying effects in non-human species, recent studies of attractiveness judgements suggest that social learning also influences human preferences. In the first part of our article, we review evidence for social learning effects on preferences in humans and other animals. In the second part, we present new empirical evidence that social learning not only influences the attractiveness of specific individuals, but can also generalize to judgements of previously unseen individuals possessing similar physical traits. The different conditions represent different populations and, once a preference arises in a population, social learning can lead to the spread of preferences within that population. In the final part of our article, we discuss the theoretical basis for, and possible impact of, biases in social learning whereby individuals may preferentially copy the choices of those with high status or better access to critical information about potential mates. Such biases could mean that the choices of a select few individuals carry the greatest weight, rapidly generating agreement in preferences within a population. Collectively, these issues suggest that social learning mechanisms encourage the spread of preferences for certain traits once they arise within a population and so may explain certain cross-cultural differences.

scholarly journals How social learning amplifies moral outrage expression in online social networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Brady ◽  
Killian Lorcan McLoughlin ◽  
Tuan Nguyen Doan ◽  
Molly Crockett
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Moral Outrage ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Behavioral Experiments ◽  
Social Learning Processes

Moral outrage shapes fundamental aspects of human social life and is now widespread in online social networks. Here, we show how social learning processes amplify online moral outrage expressions over time. In two pre-registered observational studies of Twitter (7,331 users and 12.7 million total tweets) and two pre-registered behavioral experiments (N = 240), we find that positive social feedback for outrage expressions increases the likelihood of future outrage expressions, consistent with principles of reinforcement learning. We also find that outrage expressions are sensitive to expressive norms in users’ social networks, over and above users’ own preferences, suggesting that norm learning processes guide online outrage expressions. Moreover, expressive norms moderate social reinforcement of outrage: in ideologically extreme networks, where outrage expression is more common, users are less sensitive to social feedback when deciding whether to express outrage. Our findings highlight how platform design interacts with human learning mechanisms to impact moral discourse in digital public spaces.

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