Decreased environmental variability induces a bias for social information use in humans

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 32-40

  Toelch, Ulf ^a,c   van Delft, Marjolijn J ^b   Bruce, Matthew J ^c   Donders, Rogier ^a   Meeus, Marius T H ^a,d   Reader, Simon M ^c  

^a UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^b LEIDEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^c UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^d TILBURG UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Cultural transmission; Decision making; Environmental variability; Humans; Social learning

Indexed keywords

EID: 56949101939     PISSN: 10905138     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.07.003     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Boyd R., and Richerson P.J. Culture and the Evolutionary Process (1985), University Of Chicago Press, Chicago
2. Boyd R., and Richerson P.J. Why does culture increase human adaptability?. Ethology and Sociobiology 16 (1995) 125-143
3. Castro L., and Toro M.A. The evolution of culture: From primate social learning to human culture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101 (2004) 10235-10240
4. Cavalli-Sforza L.L., and Feldman M.W. Cultural Transmission and Evolution (1981), Princeton University Press, Princeton
5. Crawley M.J. The R Book (2007), John Wiley & Sons Ltd, West Sussex
6. Feldman M.W., Aoki K., and Kumm J. Individual versus social learning: Evolutionary analysis in a fluctuating environment. Anthropological Science 104 (1996) 209-231
7. Flinn M.V. Culture and the evolution of social learning. Evolution and Human Behavior 18 (1997) 23-67
8. Gigerenzer G., Todd P.M., and the ABC group. Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart (1999), Oxford University Press, Oxford
9. Henrich J., and McElreath R. The evolution of cultural evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 12 (2003) 123-135
10. Johnson J., and Omland K. Model selection in ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19 (2004) 101-108
11. Kameda T., and Nakanishi D. Cost-benefit analysis of social/cultural learning in a nonstationary uncertain environment - An evolutionary simulation and an experiment with human subjects. Evolution and Human Behavior 23 (2002) 373-393
12. Kameda T., and Nakanishi D. Does social/cultural learning increase human adaptability? Rogers's question revisited. Evolution and Human Behavior 24 (2003) 242-260
13. Kendal R.L., Coolen I., van Bergen Y., and Laland K.N. Trade-offs in the adaptive use of social and asocial learning. Advances in the Study of Behavior 35 (2005) 333-379
14. Laland K.N., Richerson P.J., and Boyd R. Developing a theory of animal social learning. In: Heyes C.M., and Galef B.G. (Eds). Social learning in animals: The roots of culture (1996), Academic Press Inc., London 129-154
15. Laland K.N., and Kendal J.R. What the models say about social learning. In: Fragaszy D.M., and Perry S. (Eds). The biology of traditions: models and evidence (2003), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 33-55
16. R Development Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing (2007), R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna
17. Reader S.M., Bruce M.J., and Rebers S. Social learning of novel route preferences in adult humans. Biology Letters 4 (2008) 37-40
18. Reader S.M., and MacDonald K. Environmental variability and primate behavioural flexibility. In: Reader S.M., and Laland K.N. (Eds). Animal Innovation (2003), Oxford University Press, Oxford 83-116
19. Rogers A.R. Does biology constrain culture?. American Anthropologist 90 (1988) 819-831
20. Tomasello M., Kruger A., and Ratner H. Cultural learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16 (1993) 495-511
21. Wakano J.Y., and Aoki K. A mixed strategy model for the emergence and intensification of social learning in a periodically changing natural environment. Theoretical Population Biology 70 (2006) 486-497
22. Whitehead H. Learning, climate and the evolution of cultural capacity. Journal of Theoretical Biology 245 (2007) 341-350
23. Yan J., and Fine J. Estimating equations for association structures. Statistics in Medicine 23 (2004) 859-874