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Causal curiosity and the conventionality of culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2005

Lori Markson  and
Gil Diesendruck
Lori Markson*
Affiliation:
UDepartment of Psychology, niversity of California, Berkeley, CA94720
Gil Diesendruck*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan52900, Israel
*
markson@berkeley.edu
markson@berkeley.edu
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Abstract

Tomasello et al. argue that cultural cognition derives from humans' unique motivation to share psychological states. We suggest that what underlies this motivation is children's propensity to seek out the underlying causes of behavior. This propensity, combined with children's competence at it, makes them especially skillful at acquiring the intentional, conventional, and reliable forms that constitute culture.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , October 2005 , pp. 709
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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