Selective social learning yields group-level cultural accumulation beyond any individual’s knowledge

Evidence

By selectively attending to certain types of cultural content, like food, sex, and tools, and to particular models based on cues related to prestige, success, and health, individuals can most efficiently equip themselves with the best available cultural know-how. This acquired repertoire can then be honed and augmented by an individual’s experience in the world. Crucially, however, these individually adaptive pursuits have an unintended consequence, which we saw when the MBAs were allowed to copy each other—the whole group gradually zeroed in on the optimal investment allocation. As individuals go about their business of learning from others in their group, the overall body of cultural information contained and distributed across the minds in the group can improve and accumulate over generations. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 198

Categorization

• 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 cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16; Culture is a genetically evolved consequence of social learning adaptations. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 139 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Observational learning enables cumulative cultural evolution of behaviors no individual could invent alone #expands (0.90) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 19
• Once cultural knowledge accumulates, individuals cannot invent better traits than they can copy #corroborates (0.82) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 205
• Culture is a genetically evolved consequence of social learning adaptations. #qualifies (0.75) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 139
• Human cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning #qualifies (0.72) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16