Evolutionary game theory

Cultural group selection

Cultural group selection is an explanatory model within cultural evolution of how cultural traits evolve according to the competitive advantage they bestow upon a group. This multidisciplinary approach to the question of human culture engages research from the fields of anthropology, behavioural economics, evolutionary biology, evolutionary game theory, sociology, and psychology. While cultural norms are often beneficial to the individuals who hold them, they need not be. Norms can spread by cultural group selection when they are practiced within successful groups, and norms are more likely to spread from groups that are successful. But, for cultural group selection to occur, there must exist, between groups, cultural differences that when transmitted across time affect the persistence or proliferation of the groups. Cultural norms that provide these advantages will, in turn, lead to the displacement, absorption or even extinction of other, less successful cultural groups. However, game theoretic models suggest that if individuals are able to migrate between groups (which is common in small-scale societies), differences between groups should be difficult to maintain. Research in psychology reveals that humans have a particular set of traits, which include imitation, conformity, and in-group bias, that are capable of supporting the maintenance of these group differences over extended periods of time. Cultural group selection gives a compelling explanation for how large-scale complex societies have formed. While altruistic behaviour such as kin selection and reciprocity can explain the behaviour of small social groups common in many species, it is unable to explain the large complex societies of unrelated, anonymous individuals that we see in the human species. However, one of the major distinctions between humans and other species is our reliance on social learning in acquiring behaviours. These instincts allow for the acquisition and persistence of culture. Through cultural group selection, culturally specific cooperative behaviour can evolve to support large societies. For example, in a study that spanned a variety of cultures, testing behaviour in Ultimatum, Dictator, and Third-party punishment games, it was found that standards of fairness and inclination to punish were correlated with both participation in world religions and market integration. This indicates how many of the behaviours necessary for complex societies are the result of cultural exposure rather than any evolution of our psychology. (Wikipedia).

Video thumbnail

Joining LinkedIn Groups

In this video, you’ll learn how to join groups on LinkedIn. Visit https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/linkedin/keeping-up-with-linkedin/1/ for our text-based lesson. We hope you enjoy!

From playlist LinkedIn

Video thumbnail

How the little guy can compete against the big guy

How microbreweries are like shrubs and ferns. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Ecological niche: is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. - Niche differentiation: refers to the process by which co

From playlist Society, Culture & Technology

Video thumbnail

Defining the Humanities: Multicultural Literature

Professor of English Paula Moya discusses how reading multicultural literature can teach us how our world is shaped by race.

From playlist Defining The Humanities

Video thumbnail

Selection

Paul Andersen explains the importance of selection in biology. Artificial selection occurs when humans choose traits that will be selected for or against. This has created the variety of domesticated animals and crops. He then describes the three main types of ecological natural selecti

From playlist Biology

Video thumbnail

RailsConf 2022 - Evaluating Cultural Fit + Culturesmithing: Everyone Influences... by Casey Watts

Evaluating Cultural Fit + Culturesmithing: Everyone Influences Culture Casey Watts “Toxic culture” is, by far, the number one reason that people are quitting their jobs. People are no longer willing to work at organizations where they don’t feel valued, respected, and included. Economist

From playlist RailsConf 2022

Video thumbnail

Visual Group Theory, Lecture 1.6: The formal definition of a group

Visual Group Theory, Lecture 1.6: The formal definition of a group At last, after five lectures of building up our intuition of groups and numerous examples, we are ready to present the formal definition of a group. We conclude by proving several basic properties that are not built into t

From playlist Visual Group Theory

Video thumbnail

Diversity is Not Just a Checklist - ChefConf 2017

Rhea Ghosh, Senior Infrastructure Engineer at HERE - ChefConf 2017 Many organizations say they want diverse teams. In this talk, I address how, beyond recruitment, individuals and managers can create a culture that sustains a truly diverse environment. Using my own transition, starting ou

From playlist ChefConf 2017

Video thumbnail

Chimps have culture

Culture has long been proposed to be a distinguishing feature of the human species. Now for the first time, cultural differences between directly neighboring chimpanzee groups have been found in the wild and are reported by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropol

From playlist Most popular videos

Video thumbnail

Humans and Other Animals: Cultural Evolution and Social Learning

What is culture? Is it uniquely human, or do animals have culture too? From dolphins getting high on puffer fish, chimpanzees learning to crack nuts, and how human culture is changing the world around, hear this panel of experts explore the fascinating subject of cultural evolution. Subscr

From playlist Ri Talks

Video thumbnail

22. The Impact of Evolutionary Thought on the Social Sciences

Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior (EEB 122) There is a distinct possibility that humans are currently part way through an evolutionary transition between individuals and groups. The conflict between these two units of selection and levels of organization, between biology and

From playlist Evolution, Ecology and Behavior with Stephen C. Stearns

Video thumbnail

20. Aggression IV

(May 17, 2010) Professor Robert Sapolsky completes his fourth and final part of a discussion about aggression and violence. He discusses how hormones and evolution have shaped this behavior into the way humans interact today. Stanford University: http://www.stanford.edu/ Stanford Depart

From playlist Lecture Collection | Human Behavioral Biology

Video thumbnail

Darwin's Legacy | Lecture 7

November 3, 2008 lecture by Professor Melissa Brown for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200). Professor Brown speaks about the history and consequences of social Darwinism, and offers insight into new ways of thinking about social evolution. Stanford Conti

From playlist Lecture Collection | Darwin's Legacy

Video thumbnail

Mark C. Mescher - A Natural History of Information

In this talk, I discuss the role of information in biology from an evolutionary perspective. I will define information as a biological concept and argue that Darwinian evolution is fundamentally an information-centric process. Building on that idea, I will discuss how key transitions in ev

From playlist LSC 2022

Video thumbnail

E.O. Wilson: On The Shoulders of Giants

Every generation benefits from the insights and discoveries of the generations who came before. “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” wrote Isaac Newton. In a special series, the World Science Festival invites audiences to stand on the shoulders of

From playlist Explore the World Science Festival

Video thumbnail

Michael Muthukrishna - Paradox of diversity in the collective brain - IPAM at UCLA

Recorded 18 February 2022. Michael Muthukrishna of the London School of Economics and Political Science presents "Paradox of diversity in the collective brain" at IPAM's Mathematics of Collective Intelligence Workshop. Abstract: Human societies behave as collective brains (Muthukrishna & H

From playlist Workshop: Mathematics of Collective Intelligence - Feb. 15 - 19, 2022.

Video thumbnail

Evolution of new metabolic functions in bacteria - Lecture 1 by Subramony Mahadevan

ORGANIZERS : Vidyanand Nanjundiah and Olivier Rivoire DATE & TIME : 16 April 2018 to 26 April 2018 VENUE : Ramanujan Lecture Hall, ICTS Bangalore This program is aimed at Master's- and PhD-level students who wish to be exposed to interesting problems in biology that lie at the biology-

From playlist Living Matter 2018

Video thumbnail

The Third Algorithm:  The Evolution of Human Culture

Lecture by Professor Gary Tomlinson, John Hay Whitney Professor of Music & the Humanities; Director of Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center. The Franke Program in Science and the Humanities is a new initiative at Yale that aims to foster communication, mutual understanding, collaborative rese

From playlist Franke Program in Science and the Humanities

Video thumbnail

21. Guest Lecture by Paolo Zanonni, Part I

Capitalism: Success, Crisis and Reform (PLSC 270) Guest speaker Paolo Zanonni, partner at Goldman Sachs, discusses the firm's transition from a straight partnership to a hybrid partnership/joint stock corporation. The impetus for the transition was obtain the advantages of the joint sto

From playlist Capitalism: Success, Crisis and Reform with Douglas W. Rae

Video thumbnail

6. Malthusian Times

Global Problems of Population Growth (MCDB 150) In many regions, the central cultural idea is that of a lineage, a family and its line of male ancestors and descendants. The prime duty in these cultures is to keep the lineage going. Religion is small scale with the ancestors performing

From playlist Global Problems of Population Growth with Robert Wyman

Video thumbnail

Evolution and human culture | Society and Culture | MCAT | Khan Academy

Visit us (http://www.khanacademy.org/science/healthcare-and-medicine) for health and medicine content or (http://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat) for MCAT related content. These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to

From playlist Society and culture | MCAT | Khan Academy

Related pages

Dictator game | Evolutionary game theory | Seshat (project) | Ultimatum game | Game theory | Self-similarity