Opportunity to assimilate and pressure to discriminate can generate cultural divergence in the laboratory
Opportunity to assimilate and pressure to discriminate can generate cultural divergence in the laboratory
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DOI：
10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.06.004
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发表时间：
2012-11-01
影响因子：
5.1
通讯作者：
Caldwell, Christine A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Matthews, Cristina;Roberts, Gareth;Caldwell, Christine A.
文化进化的正式模型已经说明了一些情况，在这种情况下，相对于其他行为特征没有固有优势的行为特征可能会遭受积极的选择压力。可能发生这种情况的一种情况是，该行为充当社会标记，并且存在将自己标识为特定群体成员的压力。我们当前研究的目的是确定组织成亚群的参与者是否可以有效地利用完全新颖的行为中的变异来宣传自己属于特定亚群，从而使群体内和群体外成员之间的歧视成为可能，并且亚群表现出越来越多的独特性。八十名参与者参与其中，分为四个亚群，每个亚群由五代四人组成。他们每个人都完成了一项建塔任务，用于之前的文化进化实验研究。实行激励性支付结构的目的是激励参与者宣传自己属于特定的亚群体，并将群体内的成员与其他亚群体的成员区分开来。第一代人看到了随机分配的“种子”塔的照片，而后来的几代人则看到了他们自己亚群的上一代成员建造的塔的照片。参与者能够区分由同一代的组内成员建造的塔和由组外成员建造的塔。经过几代人的努力，塔楼的设计不断发展，越来越容易被识别为属于特定的人群。没有先验优势的任意特征与群体成员资格相关联，为理论模型提供了经验支持。 (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. 保留所有权利。
Formal models of cultural evolution have illustrated circumstances under which behavioral traits that have no inherent advantage over others can undergo positive selection pressure. One situation in which this may occur is when the behavior functions as a social marker, and there is pressure to identify oneself as a member of a particular group. Our aim in the current study was to determine whether participants organized into subpopulations could effectively exploit variation in a completely novel behavior to advertise themselves as belonging to a particular subpopulation, such that discrimination between in-group and out-group members was possible and subpopulations exhibited increasing distinctiveness. Eighty participants took part, organized into four subpopulations, each composed of five four-member generations. They each completed a tower-building task, used in previous experimental studies of cultural evolution. An incentive payment structure was imposed with the aim of motivating participants to advertise themselves as belonging to a particular subpopulation and to distinguish in-group members from members of other subpopulations. The first generation were exposed to photographs of randomly assigned "seed" towers, and later generations were exposed to photographs of the towers built by the members of the previous generation of their own subpopulation. Participants were able to discriminate towers built by in-group members of the same generation, from towers built by out-group members. Over generations, tower designs evolved such that they were increasingly identifiable as belonging to a particular subpopulation. Arbitrary traits which had no prior advantage became associated with group membership, providing empirical support for theoretical models. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.