title: Partial connectivity increases cultural accumulation within groups.
abstract: Complex technologies used in most human societies are beyond the inventive capacities of individuals. Instead, they result from a cumulative process in which innovations are gradually added to existing cultural traits across many generations. Recent work suggests that a population's ability to develop complex technologies is positively affected by its size and connectedness. Here, we present a simple computer-based experiment that compares the accumulation of innovations by fully and partially connected groups of the same size in a complex fitness landscape. We find that the propensity to learn from successful individuals drastically reduces cultural diversity within fully connected groups. In comparison, partially connected groups produce more diverse solutions, and this diversity allows them to develop complex solutions that are never produced in fully connected groups. These results suggest that explanations of ancestral patterns of cultural complexity may need to consider levels of population fragmentation and interaction patterns between partially isolated groups.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287; maxime.derex@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1512-6496
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Derex
authors.affiliation: School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boyd
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D003405:Creativity; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D003469:Culture; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D062069:Inventions; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011156:Population Density; D044382:Population Groups; D011340:Problem Solving; D011897:Random Allocation; D012944:Social Support; D018581:Technology Transfer; D035703:Therapies, Investigational; D018910:Video Games; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cultural evolution; innovation; population size; social network; technological trajectory