Population turnover, behavioral conservatism, and rates of cultural evolution.

ABSTRACT: Cultural evolution facilitates behavioral adaptation in many species. The pace of cultural evolution can be accelerated by population turnover, where newcomers (immigrants or juvenile recruits) introduce adaptive cultural traits into their new group. However, where newcomers are naïve to the challenges of their new group, population turnover could potentially slow the rate of cultural evolution. Here, we model cultural evolution with population turnover and show that even if turnover results in the replacement of experienced individuals with naïve ones, turnover can still accelerate cultural evolution if (1) the rate of social learning is more than twice as fast as the turnover rate and (b) newcomers are more likely to learn socially than behaviorally conservative existing group members. A

SUBMITTER: Dyble M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10807982 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar-Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature