Accumulating culture continuously drives selection for bigger brains and better learners

Evidence

As the process continues over generations, the selection pressures only increase: the more culture accumulates, the greater the selection pressures on genes for making one an adept cultural learner with a bigger brain capable of harnessing the ever-upward-spiraling body of cultural information. … The memory space demanded in Generation 5, if one wants any chance of outsurviving and outreproducing others in the population, has increased threefold in only six generations. If genes spread that expand the brains of Generation 6, the selection pressure for bigger and better brains won’t abate because cultural evolution will continue to expand the size of the cultural repertoire—of the body of know-how one could learn, if one were sufficiently well equipped. This culture-gene coevolutionary ratchet made us human. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 206

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cumulative cultural evolution drives selection for brains specialized to acquire cultural information. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 218; Cultural learning skills drove rapid human adaptation across all habitats — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 125; Culturally transmitted skills created selection pressures shaping human anatomy and physiology — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 313 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Cumulative cultural evolution drives selection for brains specialized to acquire cultural information. #corroborates (0.95) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 218
• Culturally transmitted skills created selection pressures shaping human anatomy and physiology #expands (0.85) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 313
• Cultural evolution can create selection pressures stronger than natural ones #corroborates (0.82) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 282
• Cultural adaptation physically rewires the brain and perception #expands (0.80) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2238
• Cultural learning skills drove rapid human adaptation across all habitats #expands (0.78) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 125
• Human cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning #complicates (0.78) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16
• Intensive learning physically rewires brain structure and perceptual habits. #exemplifies (0.74)
• Culture is a genetically evolved consequence of social learning adaptations. #qualifies (0.72) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 139
• Cultural learning dominates when individual learning is costly. #qualifies (0.72) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 1107