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Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution

The ability to build upon previous knowledge—cumulative cultural evolution—is a hallmark of human societies. While cumulative cultural evolution depends on the interaction between social systems, cognition and the environment, there is increasing evidence that cumulative cultural evolution is facili...

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Autores principales: Cantor, Mauricio, Chimento, Michael, Smeele, Simeon Q., He, Peng, Papageorgiou, Danai, Aplin, Lucy M., Farine, Damien R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7944107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33715438
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.3107
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author Cantor, Mauricio
Chimento, Michael
Smeele, Simeon Q.
He, Peng
Papageorgiou, Danai
Aplin, Lucy M.
Farine, Damien R.
author_facet Cantor, Mauricio
Chimento, Michael
Smeele, Simeon Q.
He, Peng
Papageorgiou, Danai
Aplin, Lucy M.
Farine, Damien R.
author_sort Cantor, Mauricio
collection PubMed
description The ability to build upon previous knowledge—cumulative cultural evolution—is a hallmark of human societies. While cumulative cultural evolution depends on the interaction between social systems, cognition and the environment, there is increasing evidence that cumulative cultural evolution is facilitated by larger and more structured societies. However, such effects may be interlinked with patterns of social wiring, thus the relative importance of social network architecture as an additional factor shaping cumulative cultural evolution remains unclear. By simulating innovation and diffusion of cultural traits in populations with stereotyped social structures, we disentangle the relative contributions of network architecture from those of population size and connectivity. We demonstrate that while more structured networks, such as those found in multilevel societies, can promote the recombination of cultural traits into high-value products, they also hinder spread and make products more likely to go extinct. We find that transmission mechanisms are therefore critical in determining the outcomes of cumulative cultural evolution. Our results highlight the complex interaction between population size, structure and transmission mechanisms, with important implications for future research.
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spelling pubmed-79441072021-03-21 Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution Cantor, Mauricio Chimento, Michael Smeele, Simeon Q. He, Peng Papageorgiou, Danai Aplin, Lucy M. Farine, Damien R. Proc Biol Sci Evolution The ability to build upon previous knowledge—cumulative cultural evolution—is a hallmark of human societies. While cumulative cultural evolution depends on the interaction between social systems, cognition and the environment, there is increasing evidence that cumulative cultural evolution is facilitated by larger and more structured societies. However, such effects may be interlinked with patterns of social wiring, thus the relative importance of social network architecture as an additional factor shaping cumulative cultural evolution remains unclear. By simulating innovation and diffusion of cultural traits in populations with stereotyped social structures, we disentangle the relative contributions of network architecture from those of population size and connectivity. We demonstrate that while more structured networks, such as those found in multilevel societies, can promote the recombination of cultural traits into high-value products, they also hinder spread and make products more likely to go extinct. We find that transmission mechanisms are therefore critical in determining the outcomes of cumulative cultural evolution. Our results highlight the complex interaction between population size, structure and transmission mechanisms, with important implications for future research. The Royal Society 2021-03-10 2021-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7944107/ /pubmed/33715438 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.3107 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolution
Cantor, Mauricio
Chimento, Michael
Smeele, Simeon Q.
He, Peng
Papageorgiou, Danai
Aplin, Lucy M.
Farine, Damien R.
Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution
title Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution
title_full Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution
title_fullStr Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution
title_full_unstemmed Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution
title_short Social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution
title_sort social network architecture and the tempo of cumulative cultural evolution
topic Evolution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7944107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33715438
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.3107
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