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Personality predicts innovation and social learning in children: Implications for cultural evolution
Author(s) -
Rawlings Bruce S.,
Flynn Emma G.,
Kendal Rachel L.
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/desc.13153
Subject(s) - psychology , openness to experience , agreeableness , creativity , conscientiousness , personality , social psychology , big five personality traits , big five personality traits and culture , social learning , developmental psychology , prosocial behavior , cognitive psychology , extraversion and introversion , pedagogy
Innovation and social learning are the pillars of cultural evolution, allowing cultural behaviours to cumulatively advance over generations. Yet, little is known about individual differences in the use of social and asocial information. We examined whether personality influenced 7‐11‐year‐old children's (N = 282) propensity to elect to observe others first or independently generate solutions to novel problems. Conscientiousness was associated with electing for no demonstrations, while agreeableness was associated with opting for demonstrations. For children receiving demonstrations, openness to experience consistently predicted deviation from observed methods. Children who opted for no demonstrations were also more likely than those opting for demonstrations to exhibit tool manufacture on an innovation challenge and displayed higher creativity, as measured by an alternate uses task. These results highlight how new cultural traditions emerge, establish and advance by identifying which individuals generate new cultural variants in populations and which are influential in the diffusion of these variants, and help reduce the apparent tension within the ‘ratchet’ of cumulative culture.