Evolutionary Psychology And
Cultural Transmission
Ashleigh Anderson, Susie Boersma
and Timothy Devereaux
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
What is Acquired Culture?
Acquired culture is representations which seem
to be triggered by episodes of social
interaction, communication in particular.
Example: Cultural input from cultural elders and
peers trigger behaviors and values, such as,
when it is appropriate to tell a joke.
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Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Boyer’s Research Programs
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Dynamics of meme replication
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Culture has separate units (memes) with some having direct
and others having indirect mutations. They also have different
probabilities of replication, therefore, culture contains separate
evolutionary systems
Cognitive conduits for culture
–
Cognitive capacities that make it possible for humans to
acquire cultural representations. The ability to extract
information from their social environment in terms of past
practices, techniques, rituals, norms, and habits.
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Boyer’s Research Programs cont.
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Cognitive predisposition
–
This program focuses on why humans have the
cultural capacities they have and not others .
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
MEME DYNAMICS &
COEVOLUTION
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The coevolution models aim to describe the
interaction between genetic and cultural
inheritance and the special properties of the
“cultural inheritance track”
Many researchers have developed the
“coevolution” theories, in particular, Durham
(1991) empirically described the cultural
transmission of memes in four ways:
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Cultural Transmission
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A meme is a unit of information that (a) actually guides
behavior, (b) is susceptible of hierarchical integration,
and (c) is differentially transmitted as coherent units
Memes are replicated through social transmission,
which produces in the mind of the cultural learner a
copy of the meme represented by the cultural elder
Cultural patterns are the outcome of differential meme
replication
The plasticity of mind allows for important cultural
variation
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Cultural Transmission
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Boyer (2000) suggests that the research on
cultural and genetic inheritance run parallel to
one another, without much effect on each
other.
Durham’s research (1991) also suggests that
genetic and cultural inheritance could conflict
or cooperate with each other.
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
COGNITION CONDUIT APPROACH
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Culture is defined as “communication between
minds”
Cultural acquisition requires a certain amount
of “mind reading” capacities, otherwise, know
as the “ratchet effect”
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Cultural Transmission
Cultural Transmission theory applied to the social
learning theory and tool use in order to illustrate
mind reading capacities or “ratchet effect”
Example: When an individual is learning something
new, they do not just direct their attention to the
location of another individual’s activity; rather, they
actually attempt to see a situation the way the
other sees it.
Social interaction promotes the transmission of
culture and learning
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Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Cognitive Predispositions Theory
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In order for an organism to extract information from the
environment, it must be sensitive to cues about where that
information can be found
In order for this to happen, Boyer (2000) explains five cognitive
adaptations with the following properties:
– Cognitive adaptations are domain specific
– plausible relevance to fitness in the environment of
evolutionary adaptation
– outcome of gradual changes and have evolved over a large
number of generations
– They develop as the result of universal maturational programs
– Their effects can be demonstrated experimentally
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Boyer’s Logic Study
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Subjects were asked to answer questions based
on logical theories. Using numbers and letters for
these questions the subjects did not do well.
However, when the test questions were altered to
give them cultural contexts the subjects were able
to answer the questions correctly.
Boyer (2000) believed that each culture has their
own view of attractiveness, but he found that there
are also universals when it comes to what is
attractive in a mate.
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
RESULTS
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“Evoked Culture”-adaptive responses that are
universal, but activation depends on cues that
are found in the social and natural
environment.
“Acquired Culture”-has no bearing on fitness.
Evolutionary psychology and cultural
anthropology
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Critical Review
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Boyer’s jargon is often hard to understand losing
the meaning of his point throughout the article.
His points may have been made clearer with more
examples of cultural transmission.
It would have been interesting to know how the
information age will effect cultural transmission.
Now that people can communicate among many
cultures, how will that effect future cultural
transmission.
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.
Any Questions?
Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission.
American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), 987-1000.