Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution.

ABSTRACT: Cultural evolutionary models have identified a range of conditions under which social learning (copying others) is predicted to be adaptive relative to asocial learning (learning on one's own), particularly in humans where socially learned information can accumulate over successive generations. However, cultural evolution and behavioural economics experiments have consistently shown apparently maladaptive under-utilization of social information in Western populations. Here we provide experimental evidence of cultural variation in people's use of social learning, potentially explaining this mismatch. People in mainland China showed significantly more social learning than British people in an artefact-design task designed to assess the adaptiveness of social information use. People in Hong K

SUBMITTER: Mesoudi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4262178 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature