TY - JOUR
T1 - The when and who of social learning and conformist transmission
AU - Muthukrishna, Michael
AU - Morgan, Thomas J.H.
AU - Henrich, Joseph
N1 - Funding Information:
Author acknowledges support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research . The authors acknowledge no potential conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc..
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - Formal evolutionary models predict when individuals rely on social learning over individual learning and the relative strength of their conformist social learning biases. Here we use both treatment effects and individual variation to test predictions about the impact of (1) the number of traits in an environment, (2) the adaptive or payoff relevance of those traits, (3) the fidelity of transmission, and (4) the size of groups. We find that both social learning and the strength of conformist transmission increase with the number of traits, the adaptive value of those traits, and the fidelity of transmission. The strength of conformist transmission increases with group size, but only when there were 2 traits in the environment. Using individual-level variation and recognizing that treatment effects predictably impact individuals differently, we show that IQ negatively predicts social learning, but has a U-shaped relationship to conformist transmission, suggesting strategic use of conformist-biased social learning among those with the highest IQ. Other plausible predictors, such as status, cultural background, and personality, were not predictive. Broadly, our results reveal that not only is the conformist transmission bias ubiquitous, but that past experiments, both human and non-human, have likely underestimated its prevalence and the prevalence of social learning by restricting designs to only 2 traits.
AB - Formal evolutionary models predict when individuals rely on social learning over individual learning and the relative strength of their conformist social learning biases. Here we use both treatment effects and individual variation to test predictions about the impact of (1) the number of traits in an environment, (2) the adaptive or payoff relevance of those traits, (3) the fidelity of transmission, and (4) the size of groups. We find that both social learning and the strength of conformist transmission increase with the number of traits, the adaptive value of those traits, and the fidelity of transmission. The strength of conformist transmission increases with group size, but only when there were 2 traits in the environment. Using individual-level variation and recognizing that treatment effects predictably impact individuals differently, we show that IQ negatively predicts social learning, but has a U-shaped relationship to conformist transmission, suggesting strategic use of conformist-biased social learning among those with the highest IQ. Other plausible predictors, such as status, cultural background, and personality, were not predictive. Broadly, our results reveal that not only is the conformist transmission bias ubiquitous, but that past experiments, both human and non-human, have likely underestimated its prevalence and the prevalence of social learning by restricting designs to only 2 traits.
KW - Conformist transmission
KW - Cultural evolution
KW - Culture
KW - Evolution
KW - Social learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84931857874&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84931857874&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.05.004
DO - 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.05.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84931857874
SN - 1090-5138
VL - 37
SP - 10
EP - 20
JO - Evolution and Human Behavior
JF - Evolution and Human Behavior
IS - 1
ER -