Cultural evolution - summary of chapter 3 of cultural psychology

Cultural psychology
Chapter 3
Cultural evolution

Where does cultural variation come from?

Ecological and geographical variation

One way we can consider who cultural variation comes to be is to consider the ecologies within which cultures people live. Different environments affect the ways that people went about living their daily lives. These ecological differences can have some indirect effect on cultures as well. The different foraging behaviours can come to affect how the societies are structured and the values that people come to adopt.

The physical environments that we live in shape the array of lifestyles that are possible.

Small differences scan have large effects

Sometimes what might seem to be small variations in ecologies can lead to dramatically different cultures, especially as they unfold over time.

Proximal causes are those that have direct and immediate relations with their effects. Distal causes are those initial differences that lead to effects over long periods, often through indirect relations.

Diamond proposes that minor geographical differences in the availability of easy-to-domesticate species of plants and animals, and the position of Eurasia allowed people in Eurasia to develop complex societies.

Even cultural differences in ways of thinking can be influenced by geographical differences. For example, the differences in the need for working together to get food come to be reflected in thinking.

Transmitted versus evoked culture

There are two ways that we can understand how geography an contribute to cultural variation 1) Cultural norms can arise as direct responses to features of the ecology 2) Cultural norms can arise because of learning from other individuals.

Evoked culture is the notion that all people, regardless of where they are from, have certain biologically encoded behavioural repertoires that are potentially accessible to them, and that these repertoires are engaged when the appropriate situational conditions are present. Some cultural variation can thus be understood as the result of universal domain-specific psychological responses being activated in response to specific conditions. Evoked culture ties to particular geographical environments.

Transmitted culture holds that people come to learn about particular cultural practices through social learning or by modelling others who live near them. Although transmitted culture typically beings in a particular geographic area, it does not necessarily stay bound to a particular geography. Unlike evoked culture, transmitted culture can travel with people when they move to new environments.

The distinction between evoked and transmitted culture is not clear-cut. A particular behavioural script might be activated by a specific situational variable. When that script becomes a norm, then that norm might be learned by others, and thus transmitted to future generations.

Ecological variation and evoked culture represent important reasons underlying cultural variability. But, there is much more to cultural variation than just variation in ecologies. Transmitted culture tends to be of more importance than evoked culture.

How do ideas catch on?

Rumours arise in all kinds of situations. Rumours are fuelled by a lack of information, creating an environment in which facts become extremely valuable, and their spread is fanned by strong emotional feelings.

The study of rumours indicate what kinds of ideas come to be spread and become common within a culture. Cultural evolution requires that certain ideas be passed on to others and that those ideas be selectively retained.

Cultures change when new ideas become widely shared among their populations.

Parallels between biological and cultural evolution

Biological evolution occurs through natural selection. The following three conditions must be met for natural selection to occur: 1) Individual variability exists among members of a species on certain traits 2) Those traits are associated with different reproductive rates 3) Those traits have a hereditary basis

It is the balance of all the selective pressures that a species faces in a given environment that affects which individual members will survive to pass on their genes to the next generation.

Natural selection has paralleles in cultural evolution. Some ideas are more likely to attract adherents than others and thus become more common in subsequent generations. As ideas become more common in a population, we have the beginning of the cultural evolution of norms. Some norms have had a selective advantage over other norms. ‘Selection’ for cultural evolution is not tied to genes. Certain ideas or norms are more likely to be retained or shared compared with others.

Copying errors is common for cultural ideas, and these errors are often intentional innovations that are planned. People don’t have to wait for cultural ideas to mutate by chance but can actively work toward changing cultural ideas to fit their needs.

Cultural ideas can pass horizontally from one person to anyone else, it can be transmitted in an instant, and people can elaborate on, change, and extent the cultural ideas quickly as they learn them.

Cultural ideas do not have to be adaptive to become common.

Factors that cause ideas to spread

Cultural evolution involves the spreading of new ideas.

Communicable ideas spread

For ideas to spread, they need to have some way of moving from one person’s had to another. The most direct way for this to occur is through language, however, some ideas might be more likely to be communicated than others. For example, ideas that are not summarized easily.

When we communicate our ideas, not everyone is equally likely to be our communication partner. People tend to be more influenced by the ideas of those with whom they regularly interact. Dynamic social impact theory posits that individuals come to influence each other, and they do so primarily in terms of how often the individuals interact, which ultimately leads to clusters of like-minded people who are separated by geography, or cultures.

Out behaviours have an influence on others because each of us is connected to those around is through a web of relationships. Our behaviours come to influence others through the individual relationships that connect us with others. This influence is on a broad array of life outcomes.

Culture emerges when people communicate with those around them, and people are most likely to communicate information that is personally relevant to them.

Useful ideas spread

One way that our social orientation is highly visible is that we like to help others. If there is a way that we can easily help others, we feel a strong urge to do so. Helping gives us a reputation for being a co-operator and increases the likelihood that others will in turn help us when they have a chance.

Perhaps the easiest way to help others is by sharing information. By sharing information, we make ourselves useful, and thus valuable as a relationship partner.

Emotional ideas spread

Contemporary legends are fictional stories that told in modern societies as though they are true.

Rumours and legends are likely to spread when they can evoke a shared emotional reaction among people. People appear motivated to share emotions with others because doing so allows them to connect with others. Social interactions should be facilitated to the extent that people feel their partners are experiencing similar feelings as themselves.

In terms of informational features, people are more motivated to share stories if the stories are plausible and if they feel the story would change their behaviours. The more emotion stories elicited, the more likely people would pass them on.

Minimally counterintuitive ideas persist

Not all stories are equally memorable. The kinds of stories that are especially likely to persist in our memories are ones that contain few minimally counterintuitive ideas. Minimally counterintuitive means statement that are surprising and unusual in the sense that they violate our expectations but are not too outlandish.

Narratives that are mostly ordinary, intuitive events sprinkled with the occasional counterintuive ideas, are the most likely to persists in our memories and survive many retellings.

How have cultures been changing?

Cultures are becoming increasingly interconnected

Different cultures have always been in contact with each other. As a series of technological innovations have reduced the costs of transportation and eased the process of long-distance communication, cultures have become far more interconnected than ever before. This increasing interconnectedness allow ideas that emerge in one culture to have an influence on people in other cultures, thereby hastening the process of cultural evolution.

In many ways these interconnections among cultures are resulting in the formation of a global culture.

This trend of globalization is simultaneously paralleled by an opposing trend toward increasing tribalism.

Although different cultures around the world are exposed to the same global products and popular culture, there is increasing cultural heterogeneity within the borders of many countries. There are trends toward cultural homogeneity at a global level and toward cultural heterogeneity at a more local level.

Many cultures are becoming more individualistic

Cultures that are individualistic include a variety of practices and customs that encourage individuals to place their own personal goals ahead of those of the collective and consider how they are distinct from others.

Cultures that are collectivistic include many cultural practices, institutions, and customs that encourage individuals to place relatively more emphasis on collective goals, especially the goals of one’s ingroup.

Putman identifies the key culprits behind a cultural transformation towards individualism as: 1) Television 2) Lack of a recent national unifying event 3) Increasingly suburban lifestyles 4) Women entering the workforces

People in many cultures are becoming more intelligent

People seem to be getting smarter.

People in the current generation have higher IQ scores than those from earlier generations. This is the Flynn effect.

It is difficult to define a universal definition of intelligence. It is exceedingly difficult to conceive of intelligence outside of a particular cultural context. This makes it challenging to understand what the pattern of increasing IQ scores across generations is telling us.

Not all measures of intelligence have bene showing the same increases over time.

A number of explanations have been proposed for the increase in IQ: 1) IQ is a proxy for health, as one can develop a fully functioning mind only with adequate nutrition. 2) The world is becoming a far more complex place than it used to be, and navigating it successfully requires much learning and practice with demanding problem-solving tasks, which ultimately influences one’s intelligence. 3) Popular culture (pop) has become progressively more complex and challenging over the past half-century

In the face of change, how doe cultures persist?

Cultures are highly fluid and continue to change across time. Even with this fluidity cultures also have an enduring tendency to persist over time. Theories suggest that cultures have surprising abilities to retain of their shape and many of their characteristics across centuries.

The way that people think are not just due to the influence of the mainstream culture with which they interact but also influenced by cultural traditions of their ancestors, some of which might date back many generations.

Cultural innovations build on previous structures

Adaptations are constrained by previously existing structures.

The thread of every cultural innovation must be woven into an existing web of beliefs and practices. Future changes will be modifications to the preexsting cultural foundation.

Early conditions have disproportionate influence on cultural evolution

Because cultures evolve from their past circumstances, the early conditions of a culture matter a great deal with respect to how cultures subsequently evolve. The early conditions of a culture have greater influence in shaping a culture’s long-term evolution than later conditions do.

This critical role of early conditions is one important reason that cultural differences can persist across time.

Pluralistic ignorance is a force for cultural persistence

Pluralistic ignorance is the tendency for people to collectively misinterpreted the thoughts that underlie other people’s behaviours.

In some situations, people’s behaviours and statements are not accurate reflections of their thoughts. Some kinds of behaviours are socially desirable. People are likely to make socially desirable statements because they wish to maintain a positive impression. Because some thoughts are more likely to be publicly expressed than others, people come to collectively misinterpret what other people’s true feelings are.