Bilateral (Hong Kong): An experimental study of East-West differences in social learning

双边（香港）：东西方社会学习差异的实验研究

• 批准号: ES/J016772/1
• 负责人: Alex Mesoudi
• 金额: $ 10.27万
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FJ016772%2F1
• 关键词: Bilateral; Hong; Kong; experimental; study

We often think of copying in negative terms: students copying others on tests are penalised for cheating, and derogatory terms like "sheep" are used to describe people who follow popular trends. In evolutionary terms, however, copying others can be seen as an adaptive thing to do. Copying other people's solutions to problems means that we don't have to go through a long and costly process of trial-and-error to find the solution on our own.Given the benefits of social learning, it has been surprising that recent psychology experiments conducted in the UK and US by the UK applicant (Dr Mesoudi) have found lower-than-expected rates of copying. When solving a complex task - designing a "virtual arrowhead" using a computer program - people tend not to copy other people's designs and use individual trial-and-error, even when they would do better if they had copied others who have been successful.A potential solution to this puzzle has been proposed by the Hong Kong applicant (Prof Chang). He has argued that over the last few centuries Western societies have experienced more environmental change, including climatic change, socio-political change and agricultural change, than Asian societies. In evolutionary terms, rapid environmental change favours individual learning, because other people's behaviour may be out-of-date and unreliable, whereas environmental stability favours social learning, because other people's behaviour is still relevant and useful. Consequently, Asian societies have adapted historically to environmental stability by engaging more in social learning, and Western countries have adapted to rapid environmental change by engaging more in individual learning. According to this hypothesis, the lower-than-expected rates of social learning seen in experiments with UK and US participants may be because those participants come from Western countries where individual learning is predominant. In this bilateral grant, we will test Chang's hypothesis by directly comparing the learning style of Western (UK) and Asian (Hong Kong Chinese) participants on the learning task developed by Mesoudi. We predict that Chinese participants will more readily engage in social learning than British participants, explaining the latter's lower-than-expected rates of social learning in terms of broader patterns of cultural adaptation. This will be the first ever East-West comparison of learning style using a task designed to measure the adaptiveness of social learning.Further experiments will probe the origin and flexibility of any East-West differences observed in the initial comparison. We will (i) simulate different levels of environmental change in the lab task (where "environment" means "what arrowhead design gives a high payoff") to see whether participants can override their culturally-determined learning style and respond adaptively to immediate environmental conditions; (ii) compare urban Hong Kong residents with rural mainland Chinese residents, to see if a history of Western influence in Hong Kong has influenced learning style; (iii) test Chinese immigrants in the UK to see if they shift learning style to that of the local Western society; and (iv) see if learning style correlates with an already established dimension of cultural variation, individualism-collectivism.In identifying and explaining East-West differences in learning styles, this project can improve cross-cultural interactions in various real-life contexts. In the classroom, for example, Asian students are encouraged to learn by rote from teachers and texts, while Western students are encouraged to learn through independent discovery, which seems to reflect the learning styles we are exploring. Chinese students in the UK often find it difficult to adjust to the different UK style of education. By better understanding such differences, we can improve the integration of immigrants and cross-cultural communication across East-West boundaries.

我们通常认为抄袭是负面的：学生在考试中抄袭别人会因为作弊而受到惩罚，像“绵羊”这样的贬义词被用来描述那些追随流行趋势的人。然而，从进化的角度来看，复制他人可以被视为一种适应性的行为。学习他人解决问题的方法意味着我们不必经历一个漫长而昂贵的试错过程来自己找到解决方案。考虑到社会学习的好处，英国申请人（梅苏迪博士）最近在英国和美国进行的心理学实验发现，模仿率低于预期，这令人惊讶。在解决一个复杂的任务时--用电脑程序设计一个“虚拟箭头”--人们往往不会抄袭别人的设计，而是采用个人试错法，即使他们如果抄袭别人的设计会做得更好。香港申请人（张教授）提出了一个解决这个难题的可能方案。他认为，在过去的几个世纪里，西方社会比亚洲社会经历了更多的环境变化，包括气候变化、社会政治变化和农业变化。从进化的角度来看，快速的环境变化有利于个人学习，因为其他人的行为可能过时和不可靠，而环境稳定有利于社会学习，因为其他人的行为仍然是相关的和有用的。因此，亚洲社会通过更多地参与社会学习来适应环境稳定，西方国家通过更多地参与个人学习来适应快速的环境变化。根据这一假设，在英国和美国参与者的实验中看到的低于预期的社会学习率可能是因为这些参与者来自个人学习占主导地位的西方国家。在这项双边资助中，我们将通过直接比较西方（英国）和亚洲（中国香港）参与者在Mesoudi开发的学习任务上的学习风格来测试Chang的假设。我们预测，中国的参与者将更容易从事社会学习比英国的参与者，解释后者的社会学习率低于预期的更广泛的文化适应模式。这将是有史以来第一次使用一项旨在衡量社会学习适应性的任务对东西方学习风格进行比较。进一步的实验将探索在最初比较中观察到的任何东西方差异的起源和灵活性。我们将（i）在实验室任务中模拟不同水平的环境变化（其中“环境”是指“箭头设计带来高回报的东西”），以观察参与者是否能够超越其文化决定的学习风格，并对直接的环境条件做出适应性反应;（ii）比较香港城市居民与中国内地农村居民，（iii）测试在英国的中国移民，看看他们的学习方式有否向本地西方社会的学习方式转变;以及（iv）看看学习风格是否与已经建立的文化差异维度（个人主义-集体主义）相关。在识别和解释东西方学习风格的差异时，该项目可以改善各种现实生活背景下的跨文化互动。例如，在课堂上，亚洲学生被鼓励从老师和课文中死记硬背，而西方学生则被鼓励通过独立发现来学习，这似乎反映了我们正在探索的学习方式。在英国的中国学生经常发现很难适应英国不同的教育风格。通过更好地理解这些差异，我们可以改善移民的融合和跨越东西方边界的跨文化交流。

项目成果

Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution.

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2209
• 发表时间: 2015-01-07
• 期刊: Proceedings. Biological sciences
• 作者: Mesoudi A;Chang L;Murray K;Lu HJ
• 通讯作者: Lu HJ