Evolution of transmission bias in cultural inheritance

Journal of Theoretical Biology
K Takahasi

Abstract

Evolution of transmission bias in cultural inheritance is investigated using simple models of cultural selection. Conventional models of cultural transmission describe cultural changes by incorporating transmission bias and non-vertical pathways into the ordinary population genetic framework. The methodology has been successful in understanding cultural changes in terms of natural selection, but it is difficult to see from the theoretical framework how biased transmission in favor of maladaptive traits might have evolved. To show that ordinary cultural processes lead at times to the evolution of a preference that favors a deleterious cultural variant, this study presents an alternative model of cultural transmission, where cultural elements are transmitted in a manner more like infections in epidemiological transmission. An ordinary equilibrium analysis indicates that, under certain conditions, runaway dynamics emerges and the coevolution of a maladaptive cultural variant and an associated preference in favor of the maladaptive variant is observed. If the preference of an individual does not change during its ontogeny (e.g., if it is transmitted genetically), however, then cultural selection alone does not produce such runaway ...Continue Reading

Citations

Oct 28, 2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Alberto AcerbiStefano Ghirlanda
May 18, 1999·Theoretical Population Biology·K Takahasi

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