Lecture 9 Cultural Evolution Biological Evolution - Happens very slowly - Relies on vertical transmission of genetic material - Over time mutations happen in the transmission process and genetic evolution occurs Cultural Evolution - Happens much quicker (very quickly) - Horizontal, vertical and oblique transmissions Several proposals to explain how cultural evolution occurs among humans: - The Memetic View - Tomasello's Cultural Learning View (aka Theory of Social Learning) The Memetic View - Just as biological evolution has the idea of a gene, cultural evolution has the idea of a meme - Gene is a unit of biological transmission; a mem has a "unit of cultural transmission" which propagates itself "by ... imitation" - A meme may be of any size, ranging from a single word to a complex behavioural pattern - Meme = anything and everything we do in our culture o Pictures (the frog) o Behavioural patterns (floss) - o Word (lit) According to this definition of meme, nothing is not a meme (has to have a parasitic quality to it) o Everything we do and create becomes a meme - The Memetic View . o Process involved in cultural evolution parallel those involved in genetic evolution Replication, Variation and Selection o Replication . When a meme is copied through imitation · Imitation allows for vertical, horizontal and oblique transmission, making meme replication very rapid · Memes are relatively high in fecundity (fertility) o Variation · When a mem undergoes mutation (e.g., modifications through misinterpretation embellishment) or recombination (e.g., two or more memes are combined) . Mutation example: Salt bae meme -> salt bae as Donald trump, sprinkling bricks on Mexico " New memes are produced in this manner, leading to "innovations" . Both are common in transmission of memes, so memes are high in fidelity at first, then low over time o Selection . Not all memes are created equal, some memes will stick along longer than other memes · When different memes have different retention rates in memory . Those that are retained more likely to be spread by others
· Memes more likely to be retained if they are associated with: · Survival/reproductive advantage o Stranger danger · Economic advantage · Positive affect Buy low, sale high · Fear Don't worry be happy o Make America great again · Easy communicability o Every slogan above - Equilibrium Different environments, with different selection pressures, select for different adaptations Traditionally used to study evolutionary biology Frequency of people exhibiting characteristic (y) expected frequency of people exhibiting characteristic (x) . More likely to do things that we think other people are doing · Flat parts are equilibrium states . In the middle, is the inflection point/tipping point 0.62 Inflection point/ tipping point 0.6 0.58 Equilibrium frequency 0.56 0.54 0.52 0.5 10- 10 10-8 10-6 10-4 10-2 1 Strength of selection (G) o in order for cultural change you requires a sizable enough shift to push beyond the tipping point > then it is more likely to hit a