Unpredictable benefits of social information can lead to the evolution of individual differences in social learning.
Journal
Nature communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Titre abrégé: Nat Commun
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101528555
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
15 Jun 2024
15 Jun 2024
Historique:
received:
23
07
2023
accepted:
07
06
2024
medline:
16
6
2024
pubmed:
16
6
2024
entrez:
15
6
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Human ecological success is often attributed to our capacity for social learning, which facilitates the spread of adaptive behaviours through populations. All humans rely on social learning to acquire culture, but there is substantial variation across societies, between individuals and over developmental time. However, it is unclear why these differences exist. Here, we present an evolutionary model showing that individual variation in social learning can emerge if the benefits of social learning are unpredictable. Unpredictability selects for flexible developmental programmes that allow individuals to update their reliance on social learning based on previous experiences. This developmental flexibility, in turn, causes some individuals in a population to end up consistently relying more heavily on social learning than others. We demonstrate this core evolutionary mechanism across three scenarios of increasing complexity, investigating the impact of different sources of uncertainty about the usefulness of social learning. Our results show how evolution can shape how individuals learn to learn from others, with potentially profound effects on cultural diversity.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38879619
doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49530-4
pii: 10.1038/s41467-024-49530-4
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
5138Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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