Lecture 2: Cultural Learning and Evolution

Question 1

Why are humans cultural beings? (6)

Answer 1

• We’re not the only species capable of cultural learning, but we do seem to be particularly good at it.
• Human beings are pretty smart, but not that strong or quick.
  
  • Our evolutionary advantage comes from our ability to learn from others.
  • The knowledge we build becomes part of our culture.
  • And the knowledge we build is dependent on what we need to know.
• Culture played a key role in our ability to evolve, but cultural learning is possible because of how we evolved.

Question 2

group size and connectedness (3)

Answer 2

• Both larger groups and more interconnected groups are better at maintaining and building upon cultural knowledge.
• More people → greater likelihood that someone will have an innovative idea.
• Interconnection → easier to share knowledge that has already been generated.

Question 3

humans have large brains (3)

Answer 3

• Our brain to body ratio (encephalization quotient; EQ) is the largest of any mammal.
• Two reasons we can maintain this large brain: 1) less muscle mass and 2) a shorter digestive tract.
• How’d we get large brains? Three main hypotheses: 1) fruit, 2) “extractive” foods, and 3) social brain hypothesis.

Question 4

fruit hypothesis (1)

Answer 4

• Animals with a diet that primarily consists of fruit need larger brains to keep track of where to find fruit and when fruit is ripe to eat.

Question 5

“extractive” foods hypothesis (1)

Answer 5

• Animals with a diet that primarily consists of food that needs to be extracted from a shell or casing need large brains to figure out how to use tools to do this.

Question 6

social brain hypothesis (6)

Answer 6

• Animals that live in larger social groups need larger brains to manage relationships with others.
• neocortex ratio: The ratio of the volume of the neocortex (outermost layer of the brain associated with higher functions) to the volume of the rest of the brain; used as a proxy measure of intelligence.
  
  • Unrelated to both fruit in diets and extractive foods.
  • There is a clear relationship between neocortex ratio and average group size of different species of primates.
• Conclusion: the social brain hypothesis is best supported for why primates got their large brains.
  
  • Humans appear to have evolved the cognitive capacities to maintain relationships of around 150 people, and many more than this some of those relationships wouldn’t meet the criteria of a meaningful mutual relationship.

Question 7

imitative learning (3)

Answer 7

• The learner internalizes something of the model’s goals and behavioural strategies; the learner copies precisely what they think the model’s trying to do.
• Human children tend to use imitative learning.
• Humans tend to over-imitate, including irrelevant actions, leading to reproduction of cultural information.

Question 8

emulative learning (3)

Answer 8

• The learner focuses on the environmental events that are involved—how the use of one object could potentially affect changes in the state of the environment; does not require imitating a model’s behavioural strategies.
• Chimpanzees and other primates tend to solve problems using emulative learning.
• While emulative learning is more efficient, it doesn’t allow for cultural info to accumulate.

Question 9

Herrman et al. (2007) (3)

Answer 9

• Had 2.5 year-old humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans had to complete a task in order to get a food or toy.
• They first tried it just on their own; all three groups were equally successful.
• Then they completed it after watching a model; human babies were much more successful than the other primates in completing the task, since it involved imitative learning.

Question 10

Where does cultural variation come from? (5)

Answer 10

• Evoked culture;
• Modernization theory;
• Pathogen theory;
• Subsistence theory;
• Transmitted culture.

Question 11

evoked culture (1)

Answer 11

• The notion that all people, regardless of where they’re from, have certain biologically encoded behavioural repertoires that are potentially accessible to them, and these repertoires are engaged when the appropriate situational conditions are present.
• e.g. Individuals in societies where there are lots of parasites are more likely to place emphasis on attractiveness of a mate, as certain blemishes etc. can be signs of parasites or disease.

Question 12

proximal causes (1)

Answer 12

• Those that have direct and immediate relations with their effects.

Question 13

distal causes (1)

Answer 13

• Initial differences that lead to effects over long periods, often through indirect relations.
• e.g. In China, the land is relatively split between rice farming (which requires cooperation) and wheat farming (which is more independent). University students (who were not farmers) from rice farming regions demonstrated more interdependent thought, while those from wheat farming societies demonstrated more interdependent thought.

Question 14

modernization theory (1)

Answer 14

• As societies become wealthier, more educated and capitalistic, they become more individualistic.

Question 15

Greenfield (2013) (4)

Answer 15

• Used Google Ngram viewer to examine frequency of the words related to gemeinschaft (about community) vs. gesellschaft (focus on the individual) used in books from the years 1800-2000.
• Compared this to percentage of the US population living in urban vs. rural communities.
• As the percentage of urban population has increased, so has the use of the words: choose (vs. obliged), get (vs. give), feel (vs. act), individual, self, unique, etc.
  
  • Words such as obedience, authority, belong, and pray have all decreased in use.

Question 16

pathogen theory (3)

Answer 16

• Societies that have a high prevalence of communicable diseases should be more collectivistic for two reasons:
  
  • 1) It would be more dangerous to deal with strangers, making those cultures more insular;
  • 2) Maintaining specific traditions and norms could buffer against pathogen transmission.

Question 17

Fincher, Thornhill, Murray, & Schaller (2008) (3)

Answer 17

• Looked at whether current and historical pathogen presence is related to amount of collectivism in a society.
• Results: Both historical and contemporary pathogen presence is strongly correlated with how individualistic (less pathogens) or collectivistic (more pathogens) societies were.
• Correlations with historical prevalence are stronger, but both sets of correlations are significant.

Question 18

Tybur et al. (2016) (3)

Answer 18

• Compared the two facets of pathogen theory by measuring levels of traditionalism in societies and social dominance orientation (a proxy for in-group-out-group preferences), as well as pathogen presence (which they called “parasite stress”).
• Found no correlation between social dominance orientation and parasite stress.
• Found a clear trend that as traditionalism increased, parasite stress also increased.

Question 19

subsistence theory (1)

Answer 19

• Some forms of subsistence (such as farming) require more functional interdependence than other forms (such as herding).

Question 20

Talhelm et al. (2014) (4)

Answer 20

• Measured holistic thought (how likely you are to see the world as connected), implicit individualism (by drawing pictures of the self relative to others; if you’re larger then you have higher implicit individualism), and loyalty to the ingroup.
• People from provinces with higher GDP thought more holistically. GDP did not predict implicit individualism or loyalty.
• People from provinces with higher rates of disease thought less holistically. Rates of disease unrelated to implicit individualism or loyalty.
• People from rice provinces demonstrated more holistic thinking, less implicit individualism, and greater loyalty.

Question 21

transmitted culture (4)

Answer 21

• The process by which people come to learn about particular cultural practices through social learning or by modeling others who live near them.
• Much of cultural variation is due to transmission rather than pure ecology.
  
  • The key to survival is on cumulated cultural ideas.
  • If we only relied on evoked culture, placing someone in an unfamiliar environment should lead them to adapt the same way as the locals, since they face the same ecology pressures, but this isn’t the case.

Question 22

factors that cause ideas to spread (4)

Answer 22

• Communicability
• Usefulness
• Emotionality
• Minimally Counterintuitive

Question 23

pluralistic ignorance (3)

Answer 23

• The tendency for people to collectively misinterpret the thoughts that underlie other people’s behaviours.
• This perpetuates “misinformation” and perpetuates cultural persistence because people are influenced by what they believe other people feel rather than by what other people actually feel.
• People’s willingness to openly discuss certain topics can be a matter of social desirability, but there can also be risks to openly discussing some topics (e.g. if you live in a totalitarian government).

Question 24

Vandello, Cohen, & Ransom (2008) (7)

Answer 24

• What has perpetuated the honor of violence perception in the American South?
• Study 1: Both Southern and Northern males overestimated how much others would approve of and engage in violence, but Southerners were slightly more likely to predict that their peers would engage in violence.
  
  • Individuals’ judgments of how often their peers would fight in the hypothetical scenarios correlated with participants’ ratings for their own likelihood of fighting.
• Study 2: Participants were placed in a situation where they had the opportunity to encourage/discourage aggression when it was either justified or unjustified.
  
  • Females were more likely to explicitly stop someone from acting aggressively; no significant difference between Northern and Southern males.
• Study 3: Participants saw videos of Study 2 and rated how aggressively the participant was acting.
  
  • Southern males were more likely to interpret an ambiguous act as encouraging aggressive acts.