scholarly journals Evolutionary dynamics of culturally transmitted, fertility-reducing traits

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1925) ◽  
pp. 20192468
Author(s):  
Dominik Wodarz ◽  
Shaun Stipp ◽  
David Hirshleifer ◽  
Natalia L. Komarova
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Demographic Transitions ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Fertility Traits

Human populations in many countries have undergone a phase of demographic transition, characterized by a major reduction in fertility at a time of increased resource availability. A key stylized fact is that the reduction in fertility is preceded by a reduction in mortality and a consequent increase in population density. Various theories have been proposed to account for the demographic transition process, including maladaptation, increased parental investment in fewer offspring, and cultural evolution. None of these approaches, including formal cultural evolutionary models of the demographic transitions, have addressed a possible direct causal relationship between a reduction in mortality and the subsequent decline in fertility. We provide mathematical models in which low mortality favours the cultural selection of low-fertility traits. This occurs because reduced mortality slows turnover in the model, which allows the cultural transmission advantage of low-fertility traits to outrace their reproductive disadvantage. For mortality to be a crucial determinant of outcome, a cultural transmission bias is required where slow reproducers exert higher social influence. Computer simulations of our models that allow for exogenous variation in the death rate can reproduce the central features of the demographic transition process, including substantial reductions in fertility within only one to three generations. A model assuming continuous evolution of reproduction rates through imitation errors predicts fertility to fall below replacement levels if death rates are sufficiently low. This can potentially explain the very low preferred family sizes in Western Europe.

scholarly journals Evolutionary dynamics of culturally transmitted, fertility-reducing traits

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Wodarz ◽  
Shaun Stipp ◽  
David Hirshleifer ◽  
Natalia L. Komarova
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Demographic Transitions ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Fertility Traits

AbstractHuman populations in many countries have undergone a phase of demographic transition, characterized by a major reduction in fertility at a time of increased resource availability. A key stylized fact is that the reduction in fertility is preceded by a reduction in mortality and a consequent increase in population density. Various theories have been proposed to account for the demographic transition process, including maladaptation, increased parental investment in fewer offspring, and cultural evolution. None of these approaches, including formal cultural evolutionary models of the demographic transitions, have addressed a possible direct causal relationship between a reduction in mortality and the subsequent decline in fertility. We provide mathematical models in whichlow mortalityfavors the cultural selection of low fertility traits. This occurs because reduced mortality slows turnover in the model, which allows the cultural transmission advantage of low fertility traits to out-race their reproductive disadvantage. For mortality to be a crucial determinant of outcome, a cultural transmission bias is required where slow reproducers exert higher social influence. Computer simulations of our models that allow for exogenous variation in the death rate can reproduce the central features of the demographic transition process, including substantial reductions in fertility within only 1-3 generations. A model assuming continuous evolution of reproduction rates through imitation errors predicts fertility to fall below replacement levels, if death rates are sufficiently low. This can potentially explain the very low preferred family sizes in Western Europe.

Conclusion and Outlook

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Cervellati ◽  
Uwe Sunde
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Many

This concluding chapter discusses this book's origins in the argument that the demographic transition is a key turning point for long-run development, not only in terms of a change in the regime of population dynamics toward low fertility and mortality, but also in the process of long-run economic development. The observed similarities in the transition process across space and time suggest that a better understanding of the reasons for such occurrences as the delay in the development of some countries might provide insights that are relevant beyond academic interest. The chapter argues that more interdisciplinary work between economists, demographers, and historians are needed to address the many facets that are covered only in passing, or not at all.

Prestige does not affect the cultural transmission of novel controversial arguments in an online transmission chain experiment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel V. Jiménez ◽  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Reliable Effect ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Relevant Domain ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
High Prestige ◽  
The Prestige

Cultural evolutionary theories define prestige as social rank that is freely conferred on individuals possessing superior knowledge or skill, in order to gain opportunities to learn from such individuals. Consequently, information provided by prestigious individuals should be more memorable, and hence more likely to be culturally transmitted, than information from non-prestigious sources, particularly for novel, controversial arguments about which pre-existing opinions are absent or weak. It has also been argued that this effect extends beyond the prestigious individual’s relevant domain of expertise. We tested whether the prestige and relevance of the sources of novel, controversial arguments affected the transmission of those arguments, independently of their content. In a four-generation linear transmission chain experiment, British participants (N=192) recruited online read two conflicting arguments in favour of or against the replacement of textbooks by computer tablets in schools. Each of the two conflicting arguments was associated with one of three sources with different levels of prestige and relevance (high prestige, high relevance; high prestige, low relevance; low prestige, low relevance). Participants recalled the pro-tablets and anti-tablets arguments associated with each source and their recall was then passed to the next participant within their chain. Contrary to our predictions, we did not find a reliable effect of either the prestige or relevance of the sources of information on transmission fidelity. We discuss whether the lack of a reliable effect of prestige on recall might be a consequence of differences between how prestige operates in this experiment and in everyday life.

scholarly journals Cultural Evolution of Genetic Heritability

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-147
Author(s):  
Ryutaro Uchiyama ◽  
Rachel Spicer ◽  
Michael Muthukrishna
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Behavioral Genetics ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Genetic Effects ◽  
Genetic Heritability ◽  
Innovation And Diffusion ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract Behavioral genetics and cultural evolution have both revolutionized our understanding of human behavior—largely independent of each other. Here we reconcile these two fields under a dual inheritance framework, offering a more nuanced understanding of the interaction between genes and culture. Going beyond typical analyses of gene–environment interactions, we describe the cultural dynamics that shape these interactions by shaping the environment and population structure. A cultural evolutionary approach can explain, for example, how factors such as rates of innovation and diffusion, density of cultural sub-groups, and tolerance for behavioral diversity impact heritability estimates, thus yielding predictions for different social contexts. Moreover, when cumulative culture functionally overlaps with genes, genetic effects become masked, unmasked, or even reversed, and the causal effects of an identified gene become confounded with features of the cultural environment. The manner of confounding is specific to a particular society at a particular time, but a WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) sampling problem obscures this boundedness. Cultural evolutionary dynamics are typically missing from models of gene-to-phenotype causality, hindering generalizability of genetic effects across societies and across time. We lay out a reconciled framework and use it to predict the ways in which heritability should differ between societies, between socioeconomic levels and other groupings within some societies but not others, and over the life course. An integrated cultural evolutionary behavioral genetic approach cuts through the nature–nurture debate and helps resolve controversies in topics such as IQ.

scholarly journals Politeness and reputation in cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Mühlenbernd ◽  
Sławomir Wacewicz ◽  
Przemysław Żywiczyński
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Order Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Social Image ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Higher Order Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

AbstractPoliteness in conversation is a fascinating aspect of human interaction that directly interfaces language use and human social behavior more generally. We show how game theory, as a higher-order theory of behavior, can provide the tools to understand and model polite behavior. The recently proposed responsibility exchange theory (Chaudhry and Loewenstein in Psychol Rev 126(3):313–344, 2019) describes how the polite communications of thanking and apologizing impact two different types of an agent’s social image: (perceived) warmth and (perceived) competence. Here, we extend this approach in several ways, most importantly by adding a cultural-evolutionary dynamics that makes it possible to investigate the evolutionary stability of politeness strategies. Our analysis shows that in a society of agents who value status-related traits (such as competence) over reciprocity-related traits (such as warmth), both the less and the more polite strategies are maintained in cycles of cultural-evolutionary change.

scholarly journals Changes of marital behavior and family patterns in post-socialist countries: Delayed, incomplete or specific second demographic transition?

Stanovnistvo ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mina Petrovic
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Second Demographic Transition ◽  
Family Organization ◽  
Family Patterns ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Marital Behavior

The paper starts by questioning the theory of second demographic transition (SDT) and its universal relevance in the field of marriage behavior and family organization in low fertility context, arguing for more differentiated approaches. With an aim to illustrate the contextual specifics of post-socialist countries in general and of Serbia in particular, the author claims that analyzed changes have not just been delayed or incomplete in comparison to more developed European countries, but shaped by specific modernization processes, which led to rationally developed strategies in overcoming structural risks, although, without ideational changes typical to the theory of SDT. Slow changes in marital behavior and family organization in Serbia are illustrated in recent sociological (empirical) research findings. The perceived changes are linked to specific structural risks (war, slow transformation and enduring economic hardships, weak state and low trust in institutions, etc) and value characteristics (persistence of materialism and traditionalism, but with increasing ambivalence). The connection between structural and ideational changes is considered through social stratification variable by relying on Coale's model on necessary preconditions for behavioral changes as well as on social deprivation concept. Having in mind upper social strata (more educated and better off), the value changes precede the behavioral that are adapted to economic uncertainty, which still force more traditional marital and family patterns. Therefore, there is a rank of different options, from extended family (for a short period at the beginning of marriage or after divorce) to separated leaving (of married partners) in parental households (due to refusing the extended family option thus creating quite specific "living apart together" form), combined with dominant strategy of prolonging the marriage. Hence, for upper social strata, marriage is still a universal but negotiable institution since more alternative options (although attractive and in accordance to changing values) are deemed irrational (have no obvious benefit). As regards the lower social strata (less educated and worse off), marriage is more in accordance with their higher inclination to traditional values, but general value liberalization legitimizes possible failures (divorces, extra marital births), which, even if not desired or economically rational, happen due to lower capacity to command life. For that reason, cohabitations and extra marital births are more common among actors at the lower end of the stratification ladder. The paper concludes that adaptive strategies related to traditional patterns of family organization dominate in Serbia, which might be illustrated by the fact that every third of one parent families lives in extended families. Even with significant structural changes (and economic improvements) in Serbia in the near future it is realistic to expect familism as an influential context, which suggests the spreading of cohabitation primarily as a pre- marital option (but more desired than forced).

scholarly journals Microanálisis comparado de la transición demográfica en tres islas de las Azores, siglos XVIII-XX: Diferencias en el pasado, semejanzas en el presente.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Norberta Amorim ◽  
Francisco J. Marco Gracia ◽  
Filipe Salgado
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Fertility Level ◽  
Birth Intervals ◽  
Age At Marriage ◽  
Several Variables ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Lower Fertility

The demographic transition is a global phenomenon. However, previous studies have demonstrated the existence of differences in its development between areas that are in close proximity. The aim of this article is to compare the process of demographic transition in the rural communities of three islands in the archipelago of the Azores (Pico, Flores and Corvo) using life course data for more than 250 years. Throughout the article several variables related to nuptiality, fertility, mortality and mobility have been analysed. Our results show clear differences between communities prior to the demographic transition and, to a lesser extent, during the demographic transition process. The island of Flores, for instance, has historically presented higher fertility because of a lower age at marriage. The island of Pico, on the other hand, had a lower fertility level, higher age at marriage and longer birth intervals. During the demographic transition, infant mortality first began to fall in Flores, therefore increasing population pressure. Since 1840, international migration and the abandonment of children served as mechanism to reduce the population pressure.

scholarly journals The evolutionary dynamics of Oropouche Virus (OROV) in South America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Gutierrez ◽  
Emma Wise ◽  
Steven Pullan ◽  
Christopher Logue ◽  
Thomas A. Bowden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Viral Genome ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Surface Proteins ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Viral Pathogens ◽  
Viral Genomes ◽  
Glycosylation Sites ◽  
Variable Evolutionary Rates

AbstractThe Amazon basin is host to numerous arthropod-borne viral pathogens that cause febrile disease in humans. Among these,Oropouche orthobunyavirus(OROV) is a relatively understudied member of the Peribunyavirales that causes periodic outbreaks in human populations in Brazil and other South American countries. Although several studies have described the genetic diversity of the virus, the evolutionary processes that shape the viral genome remain poorly understood. Here we present a comprehensive study of the genomic dynamics of OROV that encompasses phylogenetic analysis, evolutionary rate estimates, inference of natural selective pressures, recombination and reassortment, and structural analysis of OROV variants. Our study includes all available published sequences, as well as a set of new OROV genomes sequences obtained from patients in Ecuador, representing the first set of viral genomes from this country. Our results show that differing evolutionary processes on the three segments that encompass the viral genome lead to variable evolutionary rates and TMRCAs that could be explained by cryptic reassortment. We also present the discovery of previously unobserved putative N-linked glycosylation sites, and codons which evolve under positive selection on the viral surface proteins, and discuss the potential role of these features in the evolution of the virus through a combined phylogenetic and structural approach.

Predicting evolution in diverse communities

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-188
Author(s):  
Timothy G. Barraclough
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Focal Species ◽  
Diverse Communities ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Disease Agent

Following the outline of basic theory and evidence in chapters 7 and 8, this chapter sets the challenge of attempting to predict evolutionary dynamics in realistically diverse communities. Many challenges and opportunities facing human populations rely on being able to predict living systems. Even when a single focal species such as a pest or disease agent is of particular concern, its dynamics and responses to control measures always depend on interactions with a diverse set of other species. Even when the focus is on whole-ecosystem functioning, that depends on trait responses of constituent species. The chapter outlines several case studies where a multispecies evolutionary approach is required, including managing marine fisheries, controlling crop pests, and managing human microbiomes for improved health. To illustrate possible ways forwards, a model of evolution in a microbial community is presented, and possible methods for tracking evolution in diverse communities are discussed.

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