scholarly journals Sexual selection of conspicuous consumption

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaios Koliofotis
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Conspicuous Consumption ◽  
Evolution Theory ◽  
Costly Signaling ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Evolution Theory ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractRecently, a number of papers draw upon ideas from sexual selection and costly signaling theory to argue that conspicuous consumption has evolved as a sexually selected mating strategy. I outline what are considered to be the criteria for arguing that a trait is the outcome of sexual selection and I explore whether conspicuous consumption is sexual adaptation. Though I share the insight that evolutionary theory can contribute to our understanding of consumption behavior, I argue that existing evolutionary explanations of conspicuous consumption do not examine human evolved psychology and available evidence about past environments. I further argue that cultural evolution theory provides an alternative explanation of conspicuous consumption in modern environments. In particular, conspicuous consumption is understood as a pattern of behavior marked by specific social learning mechanisms. Such an approach reflects the analytical tools of cultural evolution theory and provides a classification of cognitive factors involved in consumption choices.

Popularity

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
Alberto Acerbi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Evolution Theory ◽  
Consumer Reviews ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cultural Evolution Theory

The tendency to copy the majority is the topic of the fourth chapter. The fact that online popularity produces long-tailed distributions is often presented as an argument to show the power of online social influence. However, long-tailed distributions are a trademark of many cultural domains, from first names to dog breeds. In addition, these distributions do not necessarily imply the existence of an individual-level tendency to prefer popular things, but they can be the result of bare availability: the more examples of an item, the more likely we will encounter it, and the more likely we will become interested in it. Conformity is next considered: as defined in cultural evolution, conformity implies an effective tendency to copy the majority. As for celebrities, various experiments are reviewed, and the author defends a view for which conformity is far from automatic, as it interacts with many other psychological tendencies. How digital technologies permit radically new forms of popularity advertisements, from the real-time quantification of “likes” in social media to the explosion of consumer reviews, or top-lists of virtually everything, is also examined and discussed in relation to cultural evolution theory.

scholarly journals A cultural evolution approach to digital media

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Acerbi
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Evolution Theory ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Cultural Evolution Theory ◽  
Simple Heuristics

Digital media have today an enormous diffusion, and their influence on the behaviour 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 behaviour and a methodological attitude to modelling 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, contextualised 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.

Use of photodynamic therapy for photodamage skin (review of literature)

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
S. I. Surkichin ◽  
N. V. Gryazeva ◽  
L. S. Kholupova ◽  
N. V. Bochkova
Keyword(s):  
Photodynamic Therapy ◽  
Comparative Evaluation ◽  
Clinical Manifestations ◽  
Light Sources ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Photosensitizing Agents ◽  
Selection Of

The article provides an overview of the use of photodynamic therapy for photodamage of the skin. The causes, pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of skin photodamage are considered. The definition, principle of action of photodynamic therapy, including the sources of light used, the classification of photosensitizers and their main characteristics are given. Analyzed studies that show the effectiveness and comparative evaluation in the selection of various light sources and photosensitizing agents for photodynamic therapy in patients with clinical manifestations of photodamage.

Philosophcal review of h. white̕s tropological theory in the context of the new philosophy of history

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (152) ◽  
pp. 92-99
Author(s):  
S. M. Geiko ◽  
◽  
O. D. Lauta
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Text Organization ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Actual Material ◽  
The Common ◽  
Historical Nature ◽  
Selection Of

The article provides a philosophical analysis of the tropological theory of the history of H. White. The researcher claims that history is a specific kind of literature, and the historical works is the connection of a certain set of research and narrative operations. The first type of operation answers the question of why the event happened this way and not the other. The second operation is the social description, the narrative of events, the intellectual act of organizing the actual material. According to H. White, this is where the set of ideas and preferences of the researcher begin to work, mainly of a literary and historical nature. Explanations are the main mechanism that becomes the common thread of the narrative. The are implemented through using plot (romantic, satire, comic and tragic) and trope systems – the main stylistic forms of text organization (metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony). The latter decisively influenced for result of the work historians. Historiographical style follows the tropological model, the selection of which is determined by the historian’s individual language practice. When the choice is made, the imagination is ready to create a narrative. Therefore, the historical understanding, according to H. White, can only be tropological. H. White proposes a new methodology for historical research. During the discourse, adequate speech is created to analyze historical phenomena, which the philosopher defines as prefigurative tropological movement. This is how history is revealed through the art of anthropology. Thus, H. White’s tropical history theory offers modern science f meaningful and metatheoretically significant. The structure of concepts on which the classification of historiographical styles can be based and the predictive function of philosophy regarding historical knowledge can be refined.

Using clusterization principles for the selection of repair sections of main oil pipelines based on diagnostic data

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-210
Author(s):  
R.M. Bogdanov
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Defect Density ◽  
Density Variation ◽  
Distance Functions ◽  
Oil Pipeline ◽  
Oil Pipelines ◽  
Classification Of Images ◽  
Main Oil Pipeline ◽  
Selection Of

The problem of determining the repair sections of the main oil pipeline is solved, basing on the classification of images using distance functions and the clustering principle, The criteria characterizing the cluster are determined by certain given values, based on a comparison with which the defect is assigned to a given cluster, procedures for the redistribution of defects in cluster zones are provided, and the cluster zones parameters are being changed. Calculations are demonstrating the range of defect density variation depending on pipeline sections and the universal capabilities of linear objects configuration with arbitrary density, provided by cluster analysis.

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