Cultural learning instincts emerge in infants and operate automatically and unconsciously

Evidence

Evidence from diverse scientific fields is now revealing how finely tuned our psychological adaptations for cultural learning are. Natural selection has equipped our species with a wide range of mental abilities that allow us to effectively and efficiently acquire information from the minds and behaviors of other people. These learning instincts emerge early, in infants and young children, and generally operate unconsciously and automatically. In many circumstances, as we saw in the Matching Pennies Game and Rock-Paper-Scissors, we find it difficult to inhibit our automatic imitative instincts. As we’ll see below, even when getting “right answers” is important, our cultural learning mechanisms fire up, to influence our practices, strategies, beliefs, and motivations. In fact, sometimes the more important getting the right answer is, the more we rely on cultural learning. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 141

Categorization

• QUESTION: Henrich says these instincts ‘emerge early, in infants and young children’ — but does not yet give the specific developmental timeline for conformist bias, which is what the reader needs.
• XREF: connects to: Mentalizing may have evolved for cultural learning rather than for social manipulation — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 191; Human toddlers’ sole cognitive advantage over great apes is social learning — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 80; Infants evolved to elicit parental attribution of intentionality — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 415 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultural learning machinery must activate early in development #corroborates (0.85) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 187
• Most behavioral coding is acquired unconsciously during childhood socialization #corroborates (0.78)
• Human cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning #qualifies (0.75) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16
• Natural selection built cultural learning that can overwrite innate preferences #expands (0.74) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 365
• Infants evolved to elicit parental attribution of intentionality #expands (0.72) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 415