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Cultural evolution in more than two dimensions: Distinguishing social learning biases and identifying payoff structures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2014

Alex Mesoudi*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. a.a.mesoudi@durham.ac.ukhttps://sites.google.com/site/amesoudi2/

Abstract

Bentley et al.’s two-dimensional conceptual map is complementary to cultural evolution research that has sought to explain population-level cultural dynamics in terms of individual-level behavioral processes. Here, I qualify their scheme by arguing that different social learning biases should be treated distinctly, and that the transparency of decisions is sometimes conflated with the actual underlying payoff structure of those decisions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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