10.5061/DRYAD.F5Q4S
Mesoudi, Alex
Durham University
Chang, Lei
University of Hong Kong
Murray, Keelin
University of St Andrews
Lu, Hui Jing
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Data from: Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West
shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution
Dryad
dataset
2014
Innovation
asocial learning
Cultural transmission
2014-10-16T17:45:03Z
2014-10-16T17:45:03Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2209
32465 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
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 Kong, and Chinese immigrants in the
UK, resembled British people in their social information use, suggesting a
recent shift in these groups from social to asocial learning due to
exposure to Western culture. Finally, Chinese mainland participants
responded less than other participants to increased environmental change
within the task. Our results suggest that learning strategies in humans
are culturally variable and not genetically fixed, necessitating the study
of the ‘social learning of social learning strategies' whereby the
dynamics of cultural evolution are responsive to social processes, such as
migration, education and globalization.
Raw dataRaw data for the study in RData format.HKdata.RData