scholarly journals Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1946) ◽  
pp. 20203107
Author(s):  
Mauricio Cantor ◽  
Michael Chimento ◽  
Simeon Q. Smeele ◽  
Peng He ◽  
Danai Papageorgiou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

The ability to build upon previous knowledge—cumulative cultural evolution—is a hallmark of human societies. While cumulative cultural evolution depends on the interaction between social systems, cognition and the environment, there is increasing evidence that cumulative cultural evolution is facilitated by larger and more structured societies. However, such effects may be interlinked with patterns of social wiring, thus the relative importance of social network architecture as an additional factor shaping cumulative cultural evolution remains unclear. By simulating innovation and diffusion of cultural traits in populations with stereotyped social structures, we disentangle the relative contributions of network architecture from those of population size and connectivity. We demonstrate that while more structured networks, such as those found in multilevel societies, can promote the recombination of cultural traits into high-value products, they also hinder spread and make products more likely to go extinct. We find that transmission mechanisms are therefore critical in determining the outcomes of cumulative cultural evolution. Our results highlight the complex interaction between population size, structure and transmission mechanisms, with important implications for future research.

scholarly journals Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Cantor ◽  
Michael C. Chimento ◽  
Simeon Q. Smeele ◽  
Peng He ◽  
Danai Papageorgiou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

AbstractThe ability to build upon previous knowledge—cumulative cultural evolution (CCE)—is a hallmark of human societies. While CCE depends on the interaction between social systems, cognition and the environment, there is increasing evidence that CCE is facilitated by larger and more structured societies. However, the relative importance of social network architecture as an additional factor shaping CCE remains unclear. By simulating innovation and diffusion of cultural traits in populations with stereotyped social structures, we disentangle the relative contributions of network architecture from those of population size and connectivity. We demonstrate that while multilevel societies can promote the recombination of cultural traits into high-value products, they also hinder spread and make products more likely to go extinct. We find that transmission mechanisms are therefore critical in determining the outcomes of CCE. Our results highlight the complex interaction between population size, structure and transmission mechanisms, with important implications for future research.

scholarly journals Cultural accumulation and improvement in online fan fiction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Pianzola ◽  
Alberto Acerbi ◽  
Simone Rebora
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution Theory ◽  
Digital Literary Studies

We analyse stories in Harry Potter fan fiction published on Archive of Our Own (AO3), using concepts from cultural evolution. In particular, we focus on cumulative cultural evolution, that is, the idea that cultural systems improve with time, drawing on previous innovations. In this study we examine two features of cumulative culture: accumulation and improvement. First, we show that stories in Harry Potter’s fan fiction accumulate cultural traits—unique tags, in our analysis—through time, both globally and at the level of single stories. Second, more recent stories are also liked more by readers than earlier stories. Our research illustrates the potential of the combination of cultural evolution theory and digital literary studies, and it paves the way for the study of the effects of online digital media on cultural cumulation.

scholarly journals The effect of dispersal on rates of cumulative cultural evolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 20180069 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Dyble
Keyword(s):  
Computational Model ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
Cultural Adaptations ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

The ability to develop cultural adaptations to local environments is critical to the biological success of humans. Although overall population size and connectedness are thought to play an important role in increasing the rate of cumulative cultural evolution, the independent effect of dispersal rules on rates of cultural evolution has not been examined. Here, a computational model is used to explore the effect of dispersal on the rate of cultural evolution in traits transmitted patrilineally (from father to son), matrilineally (mother to daughter) and bilineally (through both sexes). Two dispersal conditions are modelled: patrilocality (where females disperse and males stay) and bilocality (where either sex may disperse). The results suggest that when only females disperse, the capacity for cumulative cultural evolution in traits shared only among males is severely constrained. This occurs even though overall rates of dispersal and the number of cultural models available to males and females are identical in both dispersal conditions. The constraints on the evolution of patrilineally inherited traits could be considered to represent a process of ‘cultural inbreeding', analogous to genetic inbreeding.

scholarly journals Social network architecture and the maintenance of deleterious cultural traits

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (70) ◽  
pp. 848-858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Yeaman ◽  
Alana Schick ◽  
Laurent Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Communications Technology ◽  
Considerable Research ◽  
Selective Elimination ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Percolation Processes

How have changes in communications technology affected the way that misinformation spreads through a population and persists? To what extent do differences in the architecture of social networks affect the spread of misinformation, relative to the rates and rules by which individuals transmit or eliminate different pieces of information (cultural traits)? Here, we use analytical models and individual-based simulations to study how a ‘cultural load’ of misinformation can be maintained in a population under a balance between social transmission and selective elimination of cultural traits with low intrinsic value. While considerable research has explored how network architecture affects percolation processes, we find that the relative rates at which individuals transmit or eliminate traits can have much more profound impacts on the cultural load than differences in network architecture. In particular, the cultural load is insensitive to correlations between an individual's network degree and rate of elimination when these quantities vary among individuals. Taken together, these results suggest that changes in communications technology may have influenced cultural evolution more strongly through changes in the amount of information flow, rather than the details of who is connected to whom.

scholarly journals Analysing the Diversification of Cultural Variants using Longitudinal Richness Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Gjesfjeld ◽  
Enrico R. Crema ◽  
Anne Kandler
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Diversification Rate ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Time Averaging ◽  
Rate Analysis ◽  
Transmission Modes ◽  
Cultural Data

One of the most significant challenges for cultural evolution is the inference of macroevolutionary patterns from historical and archaeological sources of cultural data. Here, we examine the utility of diversification rate analysis for observing trends in the mode and tempo of cultural evolution using simulated cultural data sets. We explore a range of scenarios in which transmission modes, population size, and innovation rates change over time and generate population-frequency data. From this data, we extract longitudinal richness and further reduce its completeness through time-averaging and random sampling. Given that perfect population-level frequencies can rarely be assumed or even approximated from historical data, these simulated scenarios provide the grounds for exploring the inferential power of longitudinal richness data. Results suggest that diversification rate analysis can identify profiles of underlying changes in population size, innovation rates, and cultural transmission. Furthermore, our results highlight a series of methodological outcomes that can be used to enhance future research into the dynamic patterns of cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Diversity and Consequences of Social Network Structure in Toothed Whales

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael N. Weiss ◽  
Samuel Ellis ◽  
Darren P. Croft
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
Survival And Reproduction

Toothed whales (suborder Odontoceti) are highly social, large brained mammals with diverse social systems. In recent decades, a large body of work has begun investigating these dynamic, complex societies using a common set of analytical tools: social network analysis. The application of social network theory to toothed whales enables insight into the factors that underlie variation in social structure in this taxon, and the consequences of these structures for survival, reproduction, disease transmission, and culture. Here, we perform a systematic review of the literature regarding toothed whale social networks to identify broad patterns of social network structure across species, common drivers of individual social position, and the consequences of network structure for individuals and populations. We also identify key knowledge gaps and areas ripe for future research. We recommend that future studies attempt to expand the taxonomic breadth and focus on standardizing methods and reporting as much as possible to allow for comparative analyses to test evolutionary hypotheses. Furthermore, social networks analysis may provide key insights into population dynamics as indicators of population health, predictors of disease risk, and as direct drivers of survival and reproduction.

scholarly journals Population Size and Cumulative Cultural Evolution: Fewer Heads Can Be Better than Many

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Fay ◽  
Naomi De Kleine ◽  
Bradley Walker ◽  
Christine Anna Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Individual Learning ◽  
Flight Distance ◽  
Learning Condition ◽  
Scale Experiment ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution ◽  
The Individual

The extent to which larger populations enhance cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is contentious. We report a large-scale experiment (N=543) that investigates the CCE of technology (paper planes and their flight distances) using a transmission chain design. Population size was manipulated such that participants could learn from the paper planes constructed by 1, 2 or 4 models from the prior generation. These social learning conditions were compared to an asocial Individual Learning condition in which individual participants made repeated attempts at constructing a paper plane, without having access to any planes produced by other participants. Larger populations generated greater variation in plane performance and gave participants access to better-adapted planes, but this did not enhance CCE. In fact, there was an inverse relationship between population size and CCE: plane flight distance did not improve over the experimental generations in the 2-Model and 4-Model conditions, but did improve over generations in the 1-Model social learning condition. The incremental improvement in plane flight distance in the 1-Model social learning condition was comparable to that in the Individual Learning condition, highlighting the importance of trial-and-error learning to artefact innovation and adaptation. In the context of this experiment, we conclude that larger populations do not enhance artefact performance via CCE, and that it may be only under certain specific conditions that larger population sizes enhance CCE.

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