Random drift and culture change
Random drift and culture change
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2004.2746
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发表时间：
2004-07-22
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Shennan, SJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bentley, RA;Hahn, MW;Shennan, SJ
我们发现，在三个不同的真实世界例子--名字、考古陶器和技术专利申请--中，文化变体的频率分布遵循幂定律，可以用一个简单的随机漂移模型来解释。我们的结论是，文化和经济选择往往反映了一个价值中立的决策过程；这一结果对社会科学研究具有深远的、可检验的影响。
We show that the frequency distributions of cultural variants, in three different real-world examples-first names, archaeological pottery and applications for technology patents-follow power laws that can be explained by a simple model of random drift. We conclude that cultural and economic choices often reflect a decision process that is value-neutral; this result has far-reaching testable implications for social-science research.