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Waring TM, Niles MT, Kling MM, Miller SN, Hébert-Dufresne L, Sabzian H, Gotelli N, McGill BJ. Operationalizing cultural adaptation to climate change: contemporary examples from United States agriculture. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220397. [PMID: 37718600 PMCID: PMC10505858 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023] Open
Abstract
It has been proposed that climate adaptation research can benefit from an evolutionary approach. But related empirical research is lacking. We advance the evolutionary study of climate adaptation with two case studies from contemporary United States agriculture. First, we define 'cultural adaptation to climate change' as a mechanistic process of population-level cultural change. We argue this definition enables rigorous comparisons, yields testable hypotheses from mathematical theory and distinguishes adaptive change, non-adaptive change and desirable policy outcomes. Next, we develop an operational approach to identify 'cultural adaptation to climate change' based on established empirical criteria. We apply this approach to data on crop choices and the use of cover crops between 2008 and 2021 from the United States. We find evidence that crop choices are adapting to local trends in two separate climate variables in some regions of the USA. But evidence suggests that cover cropping may be adapting more to the economic environment than climatic conditions. Further research is needed to characterize the process of cultural adaptation, particularly the routes and mechanisms of cultural transmission. Furthermore, climate adaptation policy could benefit from research on factors that differentiate regions exhibiting adaptive trends in crop choice from those that do not. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy M. Waring
- School of Economics, University of Maine, Orono 04473, ME, USA
- Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine, Orono 04473, ME, USA
| | - Meredith T. Niles
- Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405-0160, VT, USA
- Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405-0160, VT, USA
| | - Matthew M. Kling
- Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405-0160, VT, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405-0160, VT, USA
| | - Stephanie N. Miller
- Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine, Orono 04473, ME, USA
- School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono 04473, ME, USA
| | - Laurent Hébert-Dufresne
- Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405-0160, VT, USA
- Vermont Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405-0160, VT, USA
| | - Hossein Sabzian
- Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine, Orono 04473, ME, USA
| | - Nicholas Gotelli
- Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405-0160, VT, USA
| | - Brian J. McGill
- Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine, Orono 04473, ME, USA
- School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono 04473, ME, USA
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2
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Schwambergová D, Kaňková Š, Třebická Fialová J, Hlaváčová J, Havlíček J. Pandemic elevates sensitivity to moral disgust but not pathogen disgust. Sci Rep 2023; 13:8206. [PMID: 37217674 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35375-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 05/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The behavioral immune system, with disgust as its motivational part, serves as the first line of defense in organisms' protection against pathogens. Laboratory studies indicate that disgust sensitivity adaptively adjusts to simulated environmental threat, but whether disgust levels similarly change in response to real-life threats, such as a pandemic, remains largely unknown. In a preregistered within-subject study, we tested whether the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic would lead to increased perceived disgust. The perception of threat was induced by testing during two phases of the Covid-19 pandemic (periods of high vs. low pathogen threat). We found heightened levels of moral disgust during a "wave" of the pandemic, but the effect was not observed in the domain of pathogen or sexual disgust. Moreover, the age of respondents and levels of trait anxiety were positively associated with pathogen and moral disgust, suggesting that variation in disgust sensitivity may be based chiefly on stable characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dagmar Schwambergová
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague 2, Czech Republic.
- National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic.
| | - Šárka Kaňková
- Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague 2, Czech Republic
| | - Jitka Třebická Fialová
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague 2, Czech Republic
| | - Jana Hlaváčová
- Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague 2, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Havlíček
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague 2, Czech Republic
- National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic
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3
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He T, Breithaupt F, Kübler S, Hills TT. Quantifying the retention of emotions across story retellings. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2448. [PMID: 36774370 PMCID: PMC9922315 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29178-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2022] [Accepted: 01/31/2023] [Indexed: 02/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Story retelling is a fundamental medium for the transmission of information between individuals and among social groups. Besides conveying factual information, stories also contain affective information. Though natural language processing techniques have advanced considerably in recent years, the extent to which machines can be trained to identify and track emotions across retellings is unknown. This study leverages the powerful RoBERTa model, based on a transformer architecture, to derive emotion-rich story embeddings from a unique dataset of 25,728 story retellings. The initial stories were centered around five emotional events (joy, sadness, embarrassment, risk, and disgust-though the stories did not contain these emotion words) and three intensities (high, medium, and low). Our results indicate (1) that RoBERTa can identify emotions in stories it was not trained on, (2) that the five emotions and their intensities are preserved when they are transmitted in the form of retellings, (3) that the emotions in stories are increasingly well-preserved as they experience additional retellings, and (4) that among the five emotions, risk and disgust are least well-preserved, compared with joy, sadness, and embarrassment. This work is a first step toward quantifying situation-driven emotions with machines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianyou He
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry, CV47AL, UK
| | - Fritz Breithaupt
- Department of Germanic Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
| | - Sandra Kübler
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry, UK
| | - Thomas T Hills
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry, CV47AL, UK.
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4
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Acerbi A, Burns J, Cabuk U, Kryczka J, Trapp B, Valletta JJ, Mesoudi A. Sentiment analysis of the Twitter response to Netflix's Our Planet documentary. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2023:e14060. [PMID: 36661052 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The role of nature documentaries in shaping public attitudes and behavior toward conservation and wildlife issues is unclear. We analyzed the emotional content of over 2 million tweets related to Our Planet, a major nature documentary released on Netflix, with dictionary and rule-based automatic sentiment analysis. We also compared the sentiment associated with species mentioned in Our Planet and a set of control species with similar features but not mentioned in the documentary. Tweets were largely negative in sentiment at the time of release of the series. This effect was primarily linked to the highly skewed distributions of retweets and, in particular, to a single negatively valenced and massively retweeted tweet (>150,000 retweets). Species mentioned in Our Planet were associated with more negative sentiment than the control species, and this effect coincided with a short period following the airing of the series. Our results are consistent with a general negativity bias in cultural transmission and document the difficulty of evoking positive sentiment, on social media and elsewhere, in response to environmental problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Acerbi
- Centre for Culture and Evolution, Division of Psychology, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK
- Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
| | - John Burns
- School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Unal Cabuk
- Centre for Culture and Evolution, Division of Psychology, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK
| | - Jakub Kryczka
- Department of Mathematics, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, UK
| | - Bethany Trapp
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, UK
| | | | - Alex Mesoudi
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, UK
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5
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From Storytelling to Facebook. HUMAN NATURE 2022; 33:132-144. [PMID: 35488999 PMCID: PMC9250454 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-022-09423-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/10/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
AbstractCultural evolution researchers use transmission chain experiments to investigate which content is more likely to survive when transmitted from one individual to another. These experiments resemble oral storytelling, wherein individuals need to understand, memorize, and reproduce the content. However, prominent contemporary forms of cultural transmission—think an online sharing—only involve the willingness to transmit the content. Here I present two fully preregistered online experiments that explicitly investigated the differences between these two modalities of transmission. The first experiment (N = 1,080 participants) examined whether negative content, information eliciting disgust, and threat-related information were better transmitted than their neutral counterpart in a traditional transmission chain setup. The second experiment (N = 1,200 participants) used the same material, but participants were asked whether or not they would share the content in two conditions: in a large anonymous social network or with their friends, in their favorite social network. Negative content was both better transmitted in transmission chain experiments and shared more than its neutral counterpart. Threat-related information was successful in transmission chain experiments but not when sharing, and finally, information eliciting disgust was not advantaged in either. Overall, the results present a composite picture, suggesting that the interactions between the specific content and the medium of transmission are important and, possibly, that content biases are stronger when memorization and reproduction are involved in the transmission—as in oral transmission—than when they are not—as in online sharing. Negative content seems to be reliably favored in both modalities of transmission.
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6
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Abstract
We conducted the largest multiple-iteration retelling study to date (12,840 participants and 19,086 retellings) with two different studies that test how emotional appraisals are transmitted across retellings. We use a novel Bayesian model that tracks changes across retellings. Study 1 examines the preservation of appraisals of happy and sad stories and finds that retellings preserve the story's degree of happiness and sadness even when length shrinks and aspects of story coherence and rationalisation deteriorate. Study 2 compared the transmission of appraisals of happiness and sadness with embarrassment, disgust, and risk. Appraisals of happiness, sadness, and also embarrassment showed high appraisal preservation, while disgust and risk were not well preserved. We conclude that participants in our studies encoded happy and sad stories by encapsulating the events and details into an overall emotional appraisal of the story and that this processing strategy might also apply to stories involving other emotions like embarrassment. The emotional appraisal played a key role in retelling by helping to guide the selection, invention, and ordering of the story elements. Hence, we posit that emotion appraisals can operate as anchors for remembering and retelling stories, thus playing an important role in narrative communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fritz Breithaupt
- Cognitive Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.,Germanic Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Binyan Li
- Cognitive Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - John K Kruschke
- Cognitive Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.,Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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7
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Walker B, Segovia Martín J, Tamariz M, Fay N. Maintenance of prior behaviour can enhance cultural selection. Sci Rep 2021; 11:19897. [PMID: 34615959 PMCID: PMC8494921 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-99340-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Many cultural phenomena evolve through a Darwinian process whereby adaptive variants are selected and spread at the expense of competing variants. While cultural evolutionary theory emphasises the importance of social learning to this process, experimental studies indicate that people's dominant response is to maintain their prior behaviour. In addition, while payoff-biased learning is crucial to Darwinian cultural evolution, learner behaviour is not always guided by variant payoffs. Here, we use agent-based modelling to investigate the role of maintenance in Darwinian cultural evolution. We vary the degree to which learner behaviour is payoff-biased (i.e., based on critical evaluation of variant payoffs), and compare three uncritical (non-payoff-biased) strategies that are used alongside payoff-biased learning: copying others, innovating new variants, and maintaining prior variants. In line with previous research, we show that some level of payoff-biased learning is crucial for populations to converge on adaptive cultural variants. Importantly, when combined with payoff-biased learning, uncritical maintenance leads to stronger population-level adaptation than uncritical copying or innovation, highlighting the importance of maintenance to cultural selection. This advantage of maintenance as a default learning strategy may help explain why it is a common human behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bradley Walker
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia
| | - José Segovia Martín
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut des Systèmes Complexes Paris Île-de-France (ISC-PIF), Paris, France
| | - Monica Tamariz
- Department of Psychology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Nicolas Fay
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia.
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9
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Berl RE, Samarasinghe AN, Roberts SG, Jordan FM, Gavin MC. Prestige and content biases together shape the cultural transmission of narratives. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2021; 3:e42. [PMID: 37588523 PMCID: PMC10427335 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2021.37] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural transmission biases such as prestige are thought to have been a primary driver in shaping the dynamics of human cultural evolution. However, few empirical studies have measured the importance of prestige relative to other effects, such as content biases present within the information being transmitted. Here, we report the findings of an experimental transmission study designed to compare the simultaneous effects of a model using a high- or low-prestige regional accent with the presence of narrative content containing social, survival, emotional, moral, rational, or counterintuitive information in the form of a creation story. Results from multimodel inference reveal that prestige is a significant factor in determining the salience and recall of information, but that several content biases, specifically social, survival, negative emotional, and biological counterintuitive information, are significantly more influential. Further, we find evidence that reliance on prestige cues may serve as a conditional learning strategy when no content cues are available. Our results demonstrate that content biases serve a vital and underappreciated role in cultural transmission and cultural evolution. Social media summary: Storyteller and tale are both key to memorability, but some content is more important than the storyteller's prestige.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard E.W. Berl
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO80523-1480, USA
| | - Alarna N. Samarasinghe
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Seán G. Roberts
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Fiona M. Jordan
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Michael C. Gavin
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO80523-1480, USA
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
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10
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Singh M, Acerbi A, Caldwell CA, Danchin É, Isabel G, Molleman L, Scott-Phillips T, Tamariz M, van den Berg P, van Leeuwen EJC, Derex M. Beyond social learning. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200050. [PMID: 33993759 PMCID: PMC8126463 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural evolution requires the social transmission of information. For this reason, scholars have emphasized social learning when explaining how and why culture evolves. Yet cultural evolution results from many mechanisms operating in concert. Here, we argue that the emphasis on social learning has distracted scholars from appreciating both the full range of mechanisms contributing to cultural evolution and how interactions among those mechanisms and other factors affect the output of cultural evolution. We examine understudied mechanisms and other factors and call for a more inclusive programme of investigation that probes multiple levels of the organization, spanning the neural, cognitive-behavioural and populational levels. To guide our discussion, we focus on factors involved in three core topics of cultural evolution: the emergence of culture, the emergence of cumulative cultural evolution and the design of cultural traits. Studying mechanisms across levels can add explanatory power while revealing gaps and misconceptions in our knowledge. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manvir Singh
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse 31015, France
| | - Alberto Acerbi
- Center for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK
| | | | - Étienne Danchin
- Laboratoire Évolution and Diversité Biologique (EDB, UMR5174), Université Fédérale de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France
| | - Guillaume Isabel
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Intégrative, Université Fédérale de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France
| | - Lucas Molleman
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Thom Scott-Phillips
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary
| | - Monica Tamariz
- Department of Psychology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
| | | | - Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
- Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Maxime Derex
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse 31015, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5314, Toulouse 31015, France
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Mesoudi A. Cultural selection and biased transformation: two dynamics of cultural evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200053. [PMID: 33993764 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Here, I discuss two broad versions of human cultural evolution which currently exist in the literature and which emphasize different underlying dynamics. One, which originates in population-genetic-style modelling, emphasizes how cultural selection causes some cultural variants to be favoured and gradually increase in frequency over others. The other, which draws more from cognitive science, holds that cultural change is driven by the biased transformation of cultural variants by individuals in non-random and consistent directions. Despite claims that cultural evolution is characterized by one or the other of these dynamics, these are neither mutually exclusive nor a dichotomy. Different domains of human culture are likely to be more or less strongly weighted towards cultural selection or biased transformation. Identifying cultural dynamics in real-world cultural data is challenging given that they can generate the same population-level patterns, such as directional change or cross-cultural stability, and the same cognitive and emotional mechanisms may underlie both cultural selection and biased transformation. Nevertheless, fine-grained historical analysis and laboratory experiments, combined with formal models to generate quantitative predictions, offer the best way of distinguishing them. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex Mesoudi
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK
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12
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Jiménez ÁV, Flitton A, Mesoudi A. When do people prefer dominant over prestigious political leaders? EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2021; 3:e16. [PMID: 37588522 PMCID: PMC10427292 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2021.12] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research has sought to explain the rise of right-wing populist leaders in terms of the evolutionary framework of dominance and prestige. In this framework, dominance is defined as high social rank acquired via coercion and fear, and prestige is defined as high social rank acquired via competence and admiration. Previous studies have shown that right-wing populist leaders are rated as more dominant than non-populist leaders, and right-wing populist/dominant leaders are favoured in times of economic uncertainty and intergroup conflict. In this paper, we explore and critique this application of dominance-prestige to politics. First, we argue that the dominance-prestige framework, originally developed to explain inter-personal relationships within small-scale societies characterised by face-to-face interaction, does not straightforwardly extend to large-scale democratic societies which have frequent anonymous interaction and complex ingroup-outgroup dynamics. Second, we show that economic uncertainty and intergroup conflict predict a preference not only for dominant leaders, but also for prestigious leaders. Third, we show that perceptions of leaders as dominant or prestigious are not fixed, and depend on the political ideology of the perceiver: people view leaders who share their ideology as prestigious, and those who oppose their ideology as dominant, whether that ideology is liberal or conservative. Fourth, we show that political ideology is a stronger predictor than economic uncertainty of preference for Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US Presidential Election, contradicting previous findings that link Trump's success to economic uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting that, if economic uncertainty does not directly affect preferences for right-wing populist leaders, other features of their discourse such as higher emotionality might explain their success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ángel V. Jiménez
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- Centre for Culture and Evolution, Department of Psychology, Brunel University London, UxbridgeUB8 3PHUK
| | - Adam Flitton
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Alex Mesoudi
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
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13
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The Link Between Adaptive Memory and Cultural Attraction: New Insights for Evolutionary Ethnobiology. Evol Biol 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s11692-020-09516-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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14
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The Cultural Transmission of Prestige and Dominance Social Rank Cues: an Experimental Simulation. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s40806-020-00261-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
AbstractInformal social hierarchies within small human groups are argued to be based on prestige, dominance, or a combination of the two (Henrich & Gil-White, 2001). Prestige-based hierarchies entail the ordering of individuals by the admiration and respect they receive from others due to their competence within valued domains. This type of hierarchy provides benefits for subordinates such as social learning opportunities and both private and public goods. In contrast, dominance-based hierarchies entail the ordering of individuals by their capacity to win fights, and coerce or intimidate others. This type of hierarchy produces costs in subordinates due to its aggressive and intimidating nature. Given the benefits and costs associated with these types of social hierarchies for subordinates, we hypothesised that prestige and dominance cues are better recalled and transmitted than social rank cues that do not elicit high prestige or dominance associations (i.e. medium social rank cues). Assuming that for the majority of the population who are not already at the top of the social hierarchy it is more important to avoid the costs of dominance-based hierarchies than to obtain the benefits of prestige-based hierarchies, we further hypothesised that dominance cues are better transmitted than prestige cues. We conducted a recall-based transmission chain experiment with 30 chains of four generations each (N = 120). Participants read and recalled descriptions of prestigious, dominant, and medium social rank footballers, and their recall was passed to the next participant within their chain. As predicted, we found that both prestige cues and dominance cues were better transmitted than medium social rank cues. However, we did not find support for our prediction of the better transmission of dominance cues than prestige cues. We discuss whether the results might be explained by a specific social-rank content transmission bias or by a more general emotional content transmission bias.
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15
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Nettle D. Selection, adaptation, inheritance and design in human culture: the view from the Price equation. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 375:20190358. [PMID: 32146878 PMCID: PMC7133501 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/24/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
For decades, parts of the literature on human culture have been gripped by an analogy: culture changes in a way that is substantially isomorphic to genetic evolution. This leads to a number of sub-claims: that design-like properties in cultural traditions should be explained in a parallel way to the design-like features of organisms, namely with reference to selection; that culture is a system of inheritance; and that cultural evolutionary processes can produce adaptation in the genetic sense. The Price equation provides a minimal description of any evolutionary system, and a method for identifying the action of selection. As such, it helps clarify some of these claims about culture conceptually. Looking closely through the lens of the Price equation, the differences between genes and culture come into sharp relief. Culture is only a system of inheritance metaphorically, or as an idealization, and the idealization may lead us to overlook causally important features of how cultural influence works. Design-like properties in cultural systems may owe more to transmission biases than to cultural selection. Where culture enhances genetic fitness, it is ambiguous whether what is doing the work is cultural transmission, or just the genetically evolved properties of the mind. I conclude that there are costs to trying to press culture into a template based on Darwinian evolution, even if one broadens the definition of 'Darwinian'. This article is part of the theme issue 'Fifty years of the Price equation'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Nettle
- Institute of Population Health Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK
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16
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Jiménez ÁV, Mesoudi A, Tehrani JJ. No evidence that omission and confirmation biases affect the perception and recall of vaccine-related information. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0228898. [PMID: 32130217 PMCID: PMC7055885 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2019] [Accepted: 01/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the spectacular success of vaccines in preventing infectious diseases, fears about their safety and other anti-vaccination claims are widespread. To better understand how such fears and claims persist and spread, we must understand how they are perceived and recalled. One influence on the perception and recall of vaccination-related information might be universal cognitive biases acting against vaccination. An omission bias describes the tendency to perceive as worse, and recall better, bad outcomes resulting from commissions (e.g. vaccine side effects) compared to the same bad outcomes resulting from omissions (e.g. symptoms of vaccine preventable diseases). Another factor influencing the perception and recall of vaccination-related information might be people's attitudes towards vaccines. A confirmation bias would mean that pre-existing pro-vaccination attitudes positively predict perceptions of severity and recall of symptoms of vaccine preventable diseases and negatively predict perceptions of severity and recall of vaccine side effects. To test for these hypothesized biases, 202 female participants aged 18-60 (M = 38.15, SD = 10.37) completed an online experiment with a between-subjects experimental design. Participants imagined that they had a 1-year old child who suffered from either vaccine side effects (Commission Condition) or symptoms of a vaccine-preventable disease (Omission Condition). They then rated a list of symptoms/side effects for their perceived severity on a 7-point Likert scale. Finally, they completed a surprise recall test in which they recalled the symptoms/side effects previously rated. An additional scale was used to measure their attitudes towards vaccines. Contrary to the hypotheses, perceptions of severity and the recall of symptoms/side effects were not associated with experimental condition, failing to support the omission bias, nor did they interact with attitudes towards vaccines, failing to support the confirmation bias. This cast doubt on the possibility that the spread of anti-vaccination claims can be explained by these particular universal cognitive biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ángel V. Jiménez
- Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
- Conspiracy Theories in Health Special Interest Group, Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, United Kingdom
| | - Alex Mesoudi
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, United Kingdom
| | - Jamshid J. Tehrani
- Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
- Conspiracy Theories in Health Special Interest Group, Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
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17
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Churchill L, Yamashiro JK, Roediger HL. Moralized memory: binding values predict inflated estimates of the group’s historical influence. Memory 2019; 27:1099-1109. [DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2019.1623261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Luke Churchill
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Jeremy K. Yamashiro
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Henry L. Roediger
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
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Morgan TJH, Acerbi A, van Leeuwen EJC. Copy-the-majority of instances or individuals? Two approaches to the majority and their consequences for conformist decision-making. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0210748. [PMID: 30682728 PMCID: PMC6347471 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2018] [Accepted: 12/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural evolution is the product of the psychological mechanisms that underlie individual decision making. One commonly studied learning mechanism is a disproportionate preference for majority opinions, known as conformist transmission. While most theoretical and experimental work approaches the majority in terms of the number of individuals that perform a behaviour or hold a belief, some recent experimental studies approach the majority in terms of the number of instances a behaviour is performed. Here, we use a mathematical model to show that disagreement between these two notions of the majority can arise when behavioural variants are performed at different rates, with different salience or in different contexts (variant overrepresentation) and when a subset of the population act as demonstrators to the whole population (model biases). We also show that because conformist transmission changes the distribution of behaviours in a population, how observers approach the majority can cause populations to diverge, and that this can happen even when the two approaches to the majority agree with regards to which behaviour is in the majority. We discuss these results in light of existing findings, ranging from political extremism on twitter to studies of animal foraging behaviour. We conclude that the factors we considered (variant overrepresentation and model biases) are plausibly widespread. As such, it is important to understand how individuals approach the majority in order to understand the effects of majority influence in cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas J. H. Morgan
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Alberto Acerbi
- Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
- University of St Andrews, Westburn Lane, St Andrews, Scotland
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Wundtlaan 1, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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19
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Brewis A, Wutich A, du Bray MV, Maupin J, Schuster RC, Gervais MM. Community hygiene norm violators are consistently stigmatized: Evidence from four global sites and implications for sanitation interventions. Soc Sci Med 2019; 220:12-21. [DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.10.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2018] [Revised: 10/22/2018] [Accepted: 10/23/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Breithaupt F, Li B, Liddell TM, Schille-Hudson EB, Whaley S. Fact vs. Affect in the Telephone Game: All Levels of Surprise Are Retold With High Accuracy, Even Independently of Facts. Front Psychol 2018; 9:2210. [PMID: 30515116 PMCID: PMC6255933 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2018] [Accepted: 10/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
When people retell stories, what guides their retelling? Most previous research on story retelling and story comprehension has focused on information accuracy as the key measure of stability in transmission. This paper suggests that there is a second, affective, dimension that provides stability for retellings, namely the audience affect of surprise. In a large-sample study with multiple iterations of retellings, we found evidence that people are quite accurate in preserving all degrees of surprisingness in serial reproduction – even when the event that produced the surprisingness in the original story is dropped or changed. Thus, we propose that the preservation of affect is an implicit goal of retelling: merely do retellers not recall highly surprising events better, but rather they register all levels of surprisingness precisely and aim to surprise their implied audience to same degree. This study used 2,389 participants. Significance Statement: Story retelling is a process whereby cultural information is transmitted horizontally across social networks and vertically down generations. For the most part, retelling research has focused on the relevance and stability of factual information, “who did what, where, when, and why”; comparatively little is known about the transmission of affective information. We suggest that affect can serve as a second axis of stability for retelling, partially independent from factual information. In serial reproduction tasks modeled after the telephone game, we find that surprisingness of stories is well preserved across retellings – even when the facts and events of the story are not. The findings are significant for the communication of information, and thereby also the stability and transformation of culture in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fritz Breithaupt
- Department of Germanic Studies, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States.,Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States
| | - Binyan Li
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States.,Department of Linguistics, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States
| | - Torrin M Liddell
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States
| | - Eleanor B Schille-Hudson
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States.,Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States
| | - Sarah Whaley
- Hutton Honors College, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States
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21
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Faking the News: Intentional Guided Variation Reflects Cognitive Biases
in Transmission Chains Without Recall. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2018. [DOI: 10.5334/csci.109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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22
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An experimental investigation into the transmission of antivax attitudes using a fictional health controversy. Soc Sci Med 2018; 215:23-27. [DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2017] [Revised: 08/17/2018] [Accepted: 08/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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23
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Bietti LM, Tilston O, Bangerter A. Storytelling as Adaptive Collective Sensemaking. Top Cogn Sci 2018; 11:710-732. [PMID: 29954043 PMCID: PMC7379714 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2017] [Revised: 05/08/2018] [Accepted: 05/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
Storytelling represents a key element in the creation and propagation of culture. Three main accounts of the adaptive function of storytelling include (a) manipulating the behavior of the audience to enhance the fitness of the narrator, (b) transmitting survival‐relevant information while avoiding the costs involved in the first‐hand acquisition of that information, and (c) maintaining social bonds or group‐level cooperation. We assess the substantial evidence collected in experimental and ethnographic studies for each account. These accounts do not always appeal to the specific features of storytelling above and beyond language use in general. We propose that the specific adaptive value of storytelling lies in making sense of non‐routine, uncertain, or novel situations, thereby enabling the collaborative development of previously acquired skills and knowledge, but also promoting social cohesion by strengthening intragroup identity and clarifying intergroup relations. Bietti, Tilston and Bangerter take an evolutionary approach towards memory transmission and storytelling, arguing that storytelling plays a central role in the creation and transmission of cultural information. They suggest that storytelling is a vehicle to transmit survival‐related information that helps to avoid the costs involved in the first‐hand acquisition of that information and contributes to the maintenance of social bonds and group‐level cooperation. Furthermore, Bietti et al. argue that, going beyond storytelling’s individualist role of manipulating the audience to enhance fitness of the narrator, that these adaptive functions of storytelling may well be assigned to other forms of language use besides narration (e.g., instructional discourse and argumentation). Based on this evidence, Bietti and colleagues claim that the specific adaptive function of storytelling lies in making sense of non‐routine, uncertain, or novel situations, thereby enabling collective sensemaking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas M Bietti
- Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel
| | - Ottilie Tilston
- Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel
| | - Adrian Bangerter
- Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel
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24
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Mercier H, Majima Y, Miton H. Willingness to transmit and the spread of pseudoscientific beliefs. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- H. Mercier
- CNRS; Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod; Bron France
| | - Y. Majima
- Department of Psychology for Well-being, School of Social Welfare; Hokusei Gakuen University; Sapporo Japan
| | - H. Miton
- Department of Cognitive Science; Central European University; Budapest Hungary
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25
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Heyes C. Enquire within: cultural evolution and cognitive science. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:20170051. [PMID: 29440517 PMCID: PMC5812964 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/20/2017] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Cultural evolution and cognitive science need each other. Cultural evolution needs cognitive science to find out whether the conditions necessary for Darwinian evolution are met in the cultural domain. Cognitive science needs cultural evolution to explain the origins of distinctively human cognitive processes. Focusing on the first question, I argue that cultural evolutionists can get empirical traction on third-way cultural selection by rooting the distinction between replication and reconstruction, two modes of cultural inheritance, in the distinction between System 1 and System 2 cognitive processes. This move suggests that cultural epidemiologists are right in thinking that replication has higher fidelity than reconstruction, and replication processes are not genetic adaptations for culture, but wrong to assume that replication is rare. If replication is not rare, an important requirement for third-way cultural selection, one-shot fidelity, is likely to be met. However, there are other requirements, overlooked by dual-inheritance theorists when they conflate strong (Darwinian) and weak (choice) senses of 'cultural selection', including dumb choices and recurrent fidelity In a second excursion into cognitive science, I argue that these requirements can be met by metacognitive social learning strategies, and trace the origins of these distinctively human cognitive processes to cultural evolution. Like other forms of cultural learning, they are not cognitive instincts but cognitive gadgets.This article is part of the theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 4AL, UK
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26
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Loewenstein J. Surprise, Recipes for Surprise, and Social Influence. Top Cogn Sci 2018; 11:178-193. [DOI: 10.1111/tops.12312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2016] [Revised: 05/12/2017] [Accepted: 11/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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27
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Blaine T, Boyer P. Origins of sinister rumors: A preference for threat-related material in the supply and demand of information. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Buskell A. What are cultural attractors? BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY 2017; 32:377-394. [PMID: 28713188 PMCID: PMC5491627 DOI: 10.1007/s10539-017-9570-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2016] [Accepted: 03/13/2017] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Concepts from cultural attractor theory are now used in domains far from their original home in anthropology and cultural evolution. Yet these concepts have not been consistently characterised. I here distinguish four ways in which the cultural attractor concept has been used and identify three kinds of factors of attraction typically appealed to. Clarifying these explanatory concepts identifies problems and ambiguities in the work of cultural epidemiologists and commentators alike.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Buskell
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RH UK
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30
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Stubbersfield JM, Tehrani JJ, Flynn EG. Chicken Tumours and a Fishy Revenge: Evidence for Emotional Content Bias in the Cumulative Recall of Urban Legends. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND CULTURE 2017. [DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12342189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
This study used urban legends to examine the effects of a cognitive bias for content which evokes higher levels of emotion on cumulative recall. As with previous research into content biases, a linear transmission chain design was used. One-hundred and twenty participants, aged 16–52, were asked to read and then recall urban legends that provoked both high levels and low levels of emotion and were both positively and negatively valenced. The product of this recall was presented to the next participant in a chain of three generations. A significant effect of emotion level on transmission fidelity was found with high emotion legends being recalled with significantly greater accuracy than low emotion legends. The emotional valence of a legend was found not to have any effect on cumulative recall; thus emotional biases in recall go beyond disgust and can incorporate other emotions such as amusement, interest and surprise. This study is the first to examine an emotion bias in cultural transmission as a general phenomenon without focusing on the emotion of disgust.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph M. Stubbersfield
- * Corresponding author, e-mail:
- Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Department of Anthropology, Durham UniversityDurham DH1 3LEUK
| | - Jamshid J. Tehrani
- Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Department of Anthropology, Durham UniversityDurham DH1 3LEUK
| | - Emma G. Flynn
- Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, School of Education/Department of Psychology, Durham UniversityDurham DH1 3LEUK
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Acerbi A. A Cultural Evolution Approach to Digital Media. Front Hum Neurosci 2016; 10:636. [PMID: 28018200 PMCID: PMC5156828 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2016] [Accepted: 11/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Digital media have today an enormous diffusion, and their influence on the behavior of a vast part of the human population can hardly be underestimated. In this review I propose that cultural evolution theory, including both a sophisticated view of human behavior and a methodological attitude to modeling and quantitative analysis, provides a useful framework to study the effects and the developments of media in the digital age. I will first give a general presentation of the cultural evolution framework, and I will then introduce this more specific research program with two illustrative topics. The first topic concerns how cultural transmission biases, that is, simple heuristics such as “copy prestigious individuals” or “copy the majority,” operate in the novel context of digital media. The existence of transmission biases is generally justified with their adaptivity in small-scale societies. How do they operate in an environment where, for example, prestigious individuals possess not-relevant skills, or popularity is explicitly quantified and advertised? The second aspect relates to fidelity of cultural transmission. Digitally-mediated interactions support cheap and immediate high-fidelity transmission, in opposition, for example, to oral traditions. How does this change the content that is more likely to spread? Overall, I suggest the usefulness of a “long view” to our contemporary digital environment, contextualized in cognitive science and cultural evolution theory, and I discuss how this perspective could help us to understand what is genuinely new and what is not.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Acerbi
- School of Innovation Science, Eindhoven University of Technology Eindhoven, Netherlands
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33
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Morin O, Acerbi A. Birth of the cool: a two-centuries decline in emotional expression in Anglophone fiction. Cogn Emot 2016; 31:1663-1675. [PMID: 27910735 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2016.1260528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The presence of emotional words and content in stories has been shown to enhance a story's memorability, and its cultural success. Yet, recent cultural trends run in the opposite direction. Using the Google Books corpus, coupled with two metadata-rich corpora of Anglophone fiction books, we show a decrease in emotionality in English-speaking literature starting plausibly in the nineteenth century. We show that this decrease cannot be explained by changes unrelated to emotionality (such as demographic dynamics concerning age or gender balance, changes in vocabulary richness, or changes in the prevalence of literary genres), and that, in our three corpora, the decrease is driven almost entirely by a decline in the proportion of positive emotion-related words, while the frequency of negative emotion-related words shows little if any decline. Consistently with previous studies, we also find a link between ageing and negative emotionality at the individual level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Morin
- a Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History , Jena , Germany
| | - Alberto Acerbi
- b School of Innovation Sciences , Eindhoven University of Technology , Eindhoven , The Netherlands
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34
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Eriksson K, Coultas JC, de Barra M. Cross-Cultural Differences in Emotional Selection on Transmission of Information. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND CULTURE 2016. [DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12342171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Research on cultural transmission among Americans has established a bias for transmitting stories that have disgusting elements (such as exposure to rats and maggots). Conceived of as a cultural evolutionary force, this phenomenon is one type of emotional selection. In a series of online studies with Americans and Indians we investigate whether there are cultural differences in emotional selection, such that the transmission process favours different kinds of content in different countries. The first study found a bias for disgusting content (rats and maggots) among Americans but not among Indians. Four subsequent studies focused on how country interacts with kind of emotional content (disgusting vs. happy surprises and good news) in reactions to transmission of stories or information. Whereas Indian participants, compared to Americans, tended to be less interested in, and excited by, transmission of stories and news involving common disgust-elicitors (like rats), the opposite pattern held for transmission of happy surprises and good news (e.g., the opening of a new public facility). We discuss various possible explanations and implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimmo Eriksson
- Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm UniversitySchool of Education, Communication and Culture, Mälardalen UniversitySwedenWallenberglab, se-10691 Stockholm
| | - Julie C. Coultas
- Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm UniversityUniversity of SussexSwedenWallenberglab, se-10691 Stockholm
| | - Mícheál de Barra
- Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm UniversitySwedenWallenberglab, se-10691 Stockholm
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36
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Adaptive Memory: Fitness-Relevant “Tunings” Help Drive Learning and Remembering. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-29986-0_10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
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Miton H, Claidière N, Mercier H. Universal cognitive mechanisms explain the cultural success of bloodletting. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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38
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Priestley M, Mesoudi A. Do Online Voting Patterns Reflect Evolved Features of Human Cognition? An Exploratory Empirical Investigation. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0129703. [PMID: 26066657 PMCID: PMC4466230 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2014] [Accepted: 05/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Online votes or ratings can assist internet users in evaluating the credibility and appeal of the information which they encounter. For example, aggregator websites such as Reddit allow users to up-vote submitted content to make it more prominent, and down-vote content to make it less prominent. Here we argue that decisions over what to up- or down-vote may be guided by evolved features of human cognition. We predict that internet users should be more likely to up-vote content that others have also up-voted (social influence), content that has been submitted by particularly liked or respected users (model-based bias), content that constitutes evolutionarily salient or relevant information (content bias), and content that follows group norms and, in particular, prosocial norms. 489 respondents from the online social voting community Reddit rated the extent to which they felt different traits influenced their voting. Statistical analyses confirmed that norm-following and prosociality, as well as various content biases such as emotional content and originality, were rated as important motivators of voting. Social influence had a smaller effect than expected, while attitudes towards the submitter had little effect. This exploratory empirical investigation suggests that online voting communities can provide an important test-bed for evolutionary theories of human social information use, and that evolved features of human cognition may guide online behaviour just as it guides behaviour in the offline world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Priestley
- Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Alex Mesoudi
- Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
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39
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Boyer P, Parren N. Threat-Related Information Suggests Competence: A Possible Factor in the Spread of Rumors. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0128421. [PMID: 26061409 PMCID: PMC4464524 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2015] [Accepted: 04/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Information about potential danger is a central component of many rumors, urban legends, ritual prescriptions, religious prohibitions and witchcraft crazes. We investigate a potential factor in the cultural success of such material, namely that a source of threat-related information may be intuitively judged as more competent than a source that does not convey such information. In five studies, we asked participants to judge which of two sources of information, only one of which conveyed threat-related information, was more knowledgeable. Results suggest that mention of potential danger makes a source appear more competent than others, that the effect is not due to a general negativity bias, and that it concerns competence rather than a more generally positive evaluation of the source.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pascal Boyer
- Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America
- Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America
- University of Lyon, Lyon, France
- * E-mail:
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Acerbi A, Mesoudi A. If we are all cultural Darwinians what's the fuss about? Clarifying recent disagreements in the field of cultural evolution. BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY 2015; 30:481-503. [PMID: 26085703 PMCID: PMC4461798 DOI: 10.1007/s10539-015-9490-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2014] [Accepted: 02/12/2015] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Cultural evolution studies are characterized by the notion that culture evolves accordingly to broadly Darwinian principles. Yet how far the analogy between cultural and genetic evolution should be pushed is open to debate. Here, we examine a recent disagreement that concerns the extent to which cultural transmission should be considered a preservative mechanism allowing selection among different variants, or a transformative process in which individuals recreate variants each time they are transmitted. The latter is associated with the notion of "cultural attraction". This issue has generated much misunderstanding and confusion. We first clarify the respective positions, noting that there is in fact no substantive incompatibility between cultural attraction and standard cultural evolution approaches, beyond a difference in focus. Whether cultural transmission should be considered a preservative or reconstructive process is ultimately an empirical question, and we examine how both preservative and reconstructive cultural transmission has been studied in recent experimental research in cultural evolution. Finally, we discuss how the relative importance of preservative and reconstructive processes may depend on the granularity of analysis and the domain being studied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Acerbi
- />Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UU UK
- />Philosophy & Ethics, School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - Alex Mesoudi
- />Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE UK
- />Human Biological and Cultural Evolution Group, Department of Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE UK
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Nahari G, Sheinfeld V, Glicksohn J, Nachson I. Serial reproduction of traumatic events: does the chain unravel? Cogn Process 2014; 16:111-20. [PMID: 25168856 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-014-0633-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2014] [Accepted: 08/21/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Our goal in this paper is to show that a careful analysis of recall accuracy within a serial reproduction chain can add to a detailed qualitative analysis of the reproductions within the chain. The texts we chose are based on newspaper reports concerning current events, which are far from being mundane: reports of tragic events, even traumatic events. The participants were 216 students who were randomly assigned to 54 four-person reproduction chains, 18 for each of three 160-word texts. The reproduction chain is highly dependent on the recall accuracy of the first generation (i.e., the first participant in the reproduction chain). Thus, we argue (and show) that there should be a qualitative difference between chains starting off with a high level of recall accuracy from those starting off with a low level of recall accuracy. Our data-analytic approach is based on trend analysis, which we argue is an apt quantitative, holistic, dynamic, process-oriented type of analysis that is required in such research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Galit Nahari
- Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, 52900, Ramat Gan, Israel,
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Stubbersfield JM, Tehrani JJ, Flynn EG. Serial killers, spiders and cybersex: Social and survival information bias in the transmission of urban legends. Br J Psychol 2014; 106:288-307. [PMID: 24975479 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2013] [Revised: 04/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
This study uses urban legends to examine the effects of the social information bias and survival information bias on cultural transmission across three phases of transmission: the choose-to-receive phase, the encode-and-retrieve phase, and the choose-to-transmit phase. In line with previous research into content biases, a linear transmission chain design with 60 participants aged 18-52 was used to examine the encode-and-retrieve phase, while participants were asked to rank their interest in reading the story behind a headline and passing a story on for the other two phases. Legends which contained social information (Social Type), legends which contained survival information (Survival Type), and legends which contained both forms of information (Combined Type) were all recalled with significantly greater accuracy than control material, while Social and Combined Type legends were recalled with significantly greater accuracy than Survival Type legends. In another study with 30 participants aged 18-22, no significant differences were found between legend types in either the choose-to-receive phase or the choose-to-transmit phase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph M Stubbersfield
- Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK; Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, School of Education, Durham University, UK
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