Manning Mason L, Thompson Bill, Morgan Thomas J H
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, 900 S. Cady Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Evol Hum Sci. 2024 Dec 3;6:e49. doi: 10.1017/ehs.2024.23. eCollection 2024.
The maintenance of cross-cultural variation and arbitrary traditions in human populations is a key question in cultural evolution. Conformist transmission, the tendency to follow the majority, was previously considered central to this phenomenon. However, recent theory indicates that cognitive biases can greatly reduce its ability to maintain traditions. Therefore, we expanded prior models to investigate two other ways that cultural variation can be sustained: payoff-biased transmission and norm reinforcement. Our findings predict that both payoff-biased transmission and reinforcement can enhance conformist transmission's ability to maintain traditions. However, payoff-biased transmission can only sustain cultural variation if it is functionally related to environmental factors. In contrast, norm reinforcement readily generates and maintains arbitrary cultural variation. Furthermore, reinforcement results in path-dependent cultural dynamics, meaning that historical traditions influence current practices, even though group behaviours have changed. We conclude that environmental variation probably plays a role in functional cultural traditions, but arbitrary cultural variation is more plausibly due to the reinforcement of norm compliance.
人类群体中跨文化差异和任意传统的维系是文化进化中的一个关键问题。顺从性传播，即跟随多数人的倾向，曾被认为是这一现象的核心。然而，最近的理论表明，认知偏差会大大降低其维系传统的能力。因此，我们扩展了先前的模型，以研究文化差异得以维系的其他两种方式：收益偏向性传播和规范强化。我们的研究结果预测，收益偏向性传播和强化都可以增强顺从性传播维系传统的能力。然而，收益偏向性传播只有在与环境因素存在功能关联时，才能维系文化差异。相比之下，规范强化很容易产生并维系任意的文化差异。此外，强化会导致路径依赖的文化动态变化，这意味着历史传统会影响当前的行为，即使群体行为已经发生了改变。我们得出结论，环境差异可能在功能性文化传统中发挥作用，但任意的文化差异更有可能是由于对规范遵守的强化。
