Evolution of social learning does not explain the origin of human cumulative culture

Because culture requires transmission of information between individuals, thinking about the origin of culture has mainly focused on the genetic evolution of abilities for social learning. Current theory considers how social learning affects the adaptiveness of a single cultural trait, yet human cul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of theoretical biology Vol. 246; no. 1; pp. 129 - 135
Main Authors Enquist, Magnus, Ghirlanda, Stefano
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Elsevier Ltd 07.05.2007
Subjects
Adaptation, Psychological
Cultural Evolution
Cumulative culture
Humans
Learning - physiology
Models, Psychological
Social Behavior
Social learning
Social learning
Cultural evolution
Cumulative culture
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Summary:Because culture requires transmission of information between individuals, thinking about the origin of culture has mainly focused on the genetic evolution of abilities for social learning. Current theory considers how social learning affects the adaptiveness of a single cultural trait, yet human culture consists of the accumulation of very many traits. Here we introduce a new modeling strategy that tracks the adaptive value of many cultural traits, showing that genetic evolution favors only limited social learning owing to the accumulation of maladaptive as well as adaptive culture. We further show that culture can be adaptive, and refined social learning can evolve, if individuals can identify and discard maladaptive culture. This suggests that the evolution of such “adaptive filtering” mechanisms may have been crucial for the birth of human culture.
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ISSN:0022-5193
1095-8541
DOI:10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.12.022