Social Transmission Bias and the Cultural Evolution of Folk Economic Beliefs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Hirshleifer ◽  
Siew Hong Teoh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Economic Beliefs

Social transmission bias and the cultural evolution of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hirshleifer ◽  
Siew Hong Teoh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Economic Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEvolved dispositions influence, but do not determine, how people think about economic problems. The evolutionary cognitive approach offers important insights but underweights the social transmission of ideas as a level of explanation. The need for asocialexplanation for the evolution of economic attitudes is evidenced, for example, by immense variations in folk-economic beliefs over time and across individuals.

scholarly journals Adoption of outgroup norms provides evidence for social transmission in perinatal care practices among rural Namibian women

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-173
Author(s):  
Renée V Hagen ◽  
Brooke A Scelza
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Perinatal Care ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Contraception Use ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Medical Recommendations ◽  
Cultural Evolution Theory

Abstract Background and objectives How do new ideas spread in social groups? We apply the framework of cultural evolution theory to examine what drives change in perinatal care norms among Himba women in the Kunene region of Namibia. Access to formal medical care is on the rise in this region, and medical workers regularly visit communities to promote WHO-recommended perinatal care practices. This study investigates how various forms of social transmission affect women’s uptake of medical recommendations concerning perinatal care. Methodology Based on interviews with one hundred Himba mothers, we used Bayesian multi-level logistical regression models to examine how perceptions of group preferences, prestige ascribed to outgroup conformers, interaction with the outgroup and access to resources affect norm adoption. Results Women who perceive medical recommendations as common in their group prefer, plan and practice these recommendations more often themselves. We observed a shift toward medical recommendations regarding birth location and contraception use that was in line with conformity bias predictions. Practices that serve as cultural identity markers persist in the population. Conclusions and implications Norm changes, and the cultural evolutionary processes that can lead to them, are not uniform, either in process or pace. Empirical studies like this one provide important examples of how these changes reflect local culture and circumstance and are critical for better understanding the models that currently predominate in cultural evolution work. These cases can also help bridge the gap between evolutionary anthropology and public health by demonstrating where promotion and prevention campaigns might be most effective. Lay Summary The recent promotion of WHO-recommended perinatal care practices in Namibia provides an opportunity to empirically study norm change using a cultural evolution framework. We found women adopt medical recommendations when they believe these are common in their social group. Local norms that were not discouraged persisted in the study group.

The emergence of man in Africa and beyond

1981 ◽  
Vol 292 (1057) ◽  
pp. 43-56 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Functional Changes ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Autocatalytic System ◽  
Brain Change

Transformations of the nervous, masticatory, locomotor and manipulatory systems, with accompanying functional changes, marked the emergence of the Hominidae and of the genus Homo . Various systems evolved in a mosaic fashion. The manipulatory and locomotor systems hominized early, probably with the emergence of the hominid family. Major changes of brain form and size occurred later, with the emergence of Homo . The functional counterpart of brain change is often thought of as cultural behaviour (material and non-material). However, the evolution of a propensity for culture would not alone have ensured the perpetuation of culture. Only an advanced mechanism for social transmission could have handed on the culture itself: evolving speech was such an advanced mechanism. Direct and indirect evidence suggests that emergent Homo (though not Australopithecus ) possessed at least the rudiments of a speech faculty about 2 Ma ago. Thereafter, biological and cultural evolution were in a positive reciprocal feedback relationship. In this autocatalytic system, speech was a crucial component: by making possible spoken teaching and learning, it enabled culture to evolve beyond what could be conveyed by grunts, snorts or nudges.

scholarly journals Cultural transmission in an ever-changing world: trial-and-error copying may be more robust than precise imitation

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1743) ◽  
pp. 20170050 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Truskanov ◽  
Yosef Prat
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Actual Environment ◽  
Cultural Gaps

Cultural transmission facilitates the spread of behaviours within social groups and may lead to the establishment of stable traditions in both human and non-human animals. The fidelity of transmission is frequently emphasized as a core component of cultural evolution and as a prerequisite for cumulative culture. Fidelity is often considered a synonym of precise copying of observed behaviours. However, while precise copying guarantees reliable transmission in an ideal static world, it may be vulnerable to realistic variability in the actual environment. Here, we argue that fidelity may be more naturally achieved when the social learning mechanisms incorporate trial-and-error; and that the robustness of social transmission is thereby increased. We employed a simple model to demonstrate how culture that is produced through exact copying is fragile in an (even slightly) noisy world. When incorporating a certain degree of trial-and-error, however, cultures are more readily formed in a stochastic environment and are less vulnerable to rare ecological changes. We suggest that considering trial-and-error learning as a stabilizing component of social transmission may provide insights into cultural evolution in a realistic, variable, world. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution’.

scholarly journals The role of language in cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliki Papa ◽  
Mioara Cristea ◽  
Nicola McGuigan ◽  
Monica Tamariz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Verbal Instruction ◽  
Action Sequence ◽  
Complex Behaviour ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Supportive Role ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

Human culture is the result of a unique cumulative evolutionary process. The social transmission mechanisms underlying this process are still not fully understood. In particular, the role of language – another unique human behaviour – in social transmission is under-explored. In this first direct, systematic comparison of demonstration vs language-based social learning, we measured the transmission fidelity and cumulative improvement of an action sequence whose objective was to extract a reward from a box. Participants were organised in transmission chains, and each of them either watched a model demonstrate an action sequence or listened to verbal instructions to produce the action sequence. In order to explore imitation and overimitation, the sequences included actions that were causally relevant or irrelevant, respectively, to extracting the reward. We explored these effects in transmission adults and in 6 to 8-year-old children. Overall, we found more copying under demonstration than verbal instruction, and of causally-relevant than irrelevant actions. However, children (but not adults) copied more causally-irrelevant actions under verbal instruction, but more causally-relevant actions under demonstration. Cumulative cultural evolution produces sophisticated, complex behaviour whose function may not be obvious. By promoting the retention of behaviour even when its function is not understood, specifically in children, language may play a supportive role in cumulative cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Effects of verbal instruction vs. modelling on imitation and overimitation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliki Papa ◽  
Mioara Cristea ◽  
Nicola McGuigan ◽  
Monica Tamariz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Verbal Instruction ◽  
Ratchet Effect ◽  
Action Sequence ◽  
Complex Behaviour ◽  
Causal Function ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

AbstractHuman culture is the result of a unique cumulative evolutionary process. Despite the importance of culture for our species the social transmission mechanisms underlying this process are still not fully understood. In particular, the role of language—another unique human behaviour—in social transmission is under-explored. In this first direct, systematic comparison of demonstration vs. language-based social learning, we ran transmission chains of participants (6- to 8-year-old children and adults from Cyprus) who attempted to extract a reward from a puzzle box after either watching a model demonstrate an action sequence or after listening to verbal instructions describing the action sequence. The initial seeded sequences included causally relevant and irrelevant actions allowing us to measure transmission fidelity and the accumulation of beneficial modifications through the lens of a subtractive ratchet effect. Overall, we found that, compared to demonstration, verbal instruction specifically enhanced the faithful transmission of causally irrelevant actions (overimitation) in children, but not in adults. Cumulative cultural evolution requires the faithful transmission of sophisticated, complex behaviour whose function may not be obvious. This indicates that, by supporting the retention of actions that appear to lack a causal function specifically by children, language may play a supportive role in cumulative cultural evolution.

The challenge of accounting for individual differences in folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Ruisch ◽  
Rajen A. Anderson ◽  
David A. Pizarro
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Existing Data

AbstractWe argue that existing data on folk-economic beliefs (FEBs) present challenges to Boyer & Petersen's model. Specifically, the widespread individual variation in endorsement of FEBs casts doubt on the claim that humans are evolutionarily predisposed towards particular economic beliefs. Additionally, the authors' model cannot account for the systematic covariance between certain FEBs, such as those observed in distinct political ideologies.

Folk-economic beliefs as moral intuitions

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Malhotra
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Moral Intuitions ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Evolutionary Explanations

AbstractAlthough Boyer & Petersen's (B&P's) cataloguing of and evolutionary explanations for folk-economic beliefs is important and valuable, the authors fail to connect their theories to existing explanations for why people do not think like economists. For instance, people often have moral intuitions akin to principles of fairness and justice that conflict with utilitarian approaches to resource allocation.

Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

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