Do social learning and conformist bias coevolve? Henrich and Boyd revisited.

We studied the coevolution of social learning and conformist bias in a modified version of the Henrich and Boyd [1998. The evolution of conformist transmission and the emergence of between-group differences. Evol. Hum. Behav. 19, 215-241] model that nevertheless preserves its essential features. The convergent stable strategies (CSS) are identified by a numerical adaptive dynamics method and then checked for evolutionary stability. A strategy that is simultaneously a CSS and an ESS is called an attractive evolutionarily stable strategy (AESS). Our main findings are as follows. First, the AESS reliance on social learning is monotone increasing in the fixed interval between environmental changes and monotone decreasing in the quality of environmental information. Second, the AESS strength of conformist bias is monotone non-increasing in the fixed interval between environmental changes and monotone non-decreasing in the quality of environmental information. The first observation is in agreement with Henrich and Boyd (1998), but the second is in direct contradiction. In addition, we conducted Monte Carlo simulations as in Henrich and Boyd (1998), which supported our findings. We believe that the reason for the discrepancy with regard to the strength of conformist bias is that Henrich and Boyd (1998) did not allow a sufficient number of iterations for true convergence to occur. In conclusion, the conditions favoring a heavy reliance on social learning are not the same as those favoring a strong conformist bias.

[1]  Alan R. Rogers,et al.  Does Biology Constrain Culture , 1988 .

[2]  Daisuke Nakanishi,et al.  Cost–benefit analysis of social/cultural learning in a nonstationary uncertain environment: An evolutionary simulation and an experiment with human subjects , 2002 .

[3]  A. Whiten,et al.  On the Nature and Evolution of Imitation in the Animal Kingdom: Reappraisal of a Century of Research , 1992 .

[4]  M. Alvard,et al.  The adaptive nature of culture , 2003 .

[5]  N. Britton.  Essential Mathematical Biology , 2004 .

[6]  P. Richerson,et al.  Built for Speed: Pleistocene Climate Variation and the Origin of Human Culture , 2000 .

[7]  R. Boyd,et al.  The evolution of conformist transmission and the emergence of between-group differences. , 1998 .

[8]  Timothy M. Waring,et al.  Article in Press Evolution and Human Behavior Xxx (2005) Xxx – Xxx , 2022 .

[9]  KenichiAoki,et al.  The Emergence of Social Learning in a Temporally Changing Environment: A Theoretical Model1 , 2005 .

[10]  Joe Yuichiro Wakano,et al.  Evolution of social learning: a mathematical analysis. , 2004, Theoretical population biology.

[11]  J M Smith,et al.  Evolution and the theory of games , 1976 .

[12]  Joe Yuichiro Wakano,et al.  A mixed strategy model for the emergence and intensification of social learning in a periodically changing natural environment. , 2006, Theoretical population biology.

[13]  J. Henrich,et al.  The evolution of cultural evolution , 2003 .

[14]  Irene A. Stegun,et al.  Handbook of Mathematical Functions. , 1966 .

[15]  Wataru Nakahashi,et al.  The evolution of conformist transmission in social learning when the environment changes periodically. , 2007, Theoretical population biology.

[16]  C. Heyes.  Imitation, culture and cognition , 1993, Animal Behaviour.

[17]  A. Whiten,et al.  Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees , 2005, Nature.

[18]  P. Richerson,et al.  Culture and the Evolutionary Process , 1988 .

[19]  M. Feldman,et al.  Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change , 2000, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[20]  É. Kisdi,et al.  Dynamics of Adaptation and Evolutionary Branching , 1997 .

[21]  M. Feldman,et al.  Individual Versus Social Learning: Evolutionary Analysis in a Fluctuating Environment , 1996 .

[22]  K. Aoki,et al.  Theoretical and empirical aspects of gene-culture coevolution. , 2001, Theoretical population biology.

[23]  C. Hauert,et al.  The Evolutionary Origin of Cooperators and Defectors , 2004, Science.