Saunders, Daniel (2022) When is Similarity-biased Social Learning Adaptive? [Preprint]

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Abstract

Cultural evolution theorists have suggested that humans employ similarity-biased social learning - we tend to imitate people who are like us. Informal evolutionary explanations have been offered for the bias. Similarity-biased learning might enable the smooth acquisition of social roles which sustain conventions and norms. This paper describes a formal model designed to uncover when similarity-biased learning is, and is not, adaptively advantageous. Whether we should expect similarity-biased social learning to evolve
strongly depends on assumptions about the adaptive function of social roles, the
initial conditions, a variety of parameter settings, and the population structure.
Making small changes to these assumptions can collapse the explanation. The
results suggest we should be very cautious about claims suggesting there is a
universal, evolved tendency towards similarity-biased learning.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Saunders, Daniel dsaunders406@gmail.com
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > Game Theory Specific Sciences > Psychology > Social Psychology
Depositing User:	Daniel Saunders
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2023 14:17
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2023 14:17
Item ID:	21624
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > Game Theory Specific Sciences > Psychology > Social Psychology
Date:	20 April 2022
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21624

Available Versions of this Item

• When is Similarity-biased Social Learning Adaptively Advantageous? (deposited 21 Apr 2022 04:13)
  • When is Similarity-biased Social Learning Adaptive? (deposited 06 Jan 2023 14:17) [Currently Displayed]

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