Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution.
Cultural evolutionary models have identified a range of conditions under which social learning (copying others) is predicted to be adaptive relative to asocial learning (learning on one's own), particularly in humans where socially learned information can accumulate over successive generations. However, cultural evolution and behavioural economics experiments have consistently shown apparently maladaptive under-utilization of social information in Western populations. Here we provide experimental evidence of cultural variation in people's use of social learning, potentially explaining this mismatch. People in mainland China showed significantly more social learning than British people in an artefact-design task designed to assess the adaptiveness of social information use. People in Hong Kong, and Chinese immigrants in the UK, resembled British people in their social information use, suggesting a recent shift in these groups from social to asocial learning due to exposure to Western culture. Finally, Chinese mainland participants responded less than other participants to increased environmental change within the task. Our results suggest that learning strategies in humans are culturally variable and not genetically fixed, necessitating the study of the 'social learning of social learning strategies' whereby the dynamics of cultural evolution are responsive to social processes, such as migration, education and globalization.
Department of Anthropology and Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK a.a.mesoudi@durham.ac.uk.
Alex
A
Mesoudi
Department of Educational Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ho Tim Building, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
Lei
L
Chang
School of Biology and Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews, Harold Mitchell Building, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TH, UK.
Keelin
K
Murray
Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Hui Jing
HJ
Lu
D000293:Adolescent; D002681:China; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult
asocial learning; cultural evolution; cultural transmission; innovation; social learning