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A bias for social information in human cultural transmission
Author(s) -
Mesoudi Alex,
Whiten Andrew,
Dunbar Robin
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1348/000712605x85871
Subject(s) - gossip , psychology , information transmission , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , social psychology , social information processing , social relation , cognitive psychology , cognition , computer science , statistics , computer network , mathematics , neuroscience
Evolutionary theories concerning the origins of human intelligence suggest that cultural transmission might be biased toward social over non‐social information. This was tested by passing social and non‐social information along multiple chains of participants. Experiment 1 found that gossip, defined as information about intense third‐party social relationships, was transmitted with siginificantly greater accuracy and in significantly greater quantity than equivalent non‐social information concerning individual behaviour or the physical environment. Experiment 2 replicated this finding controlling for narrative coherence, and additionally found that information concerning everyday non‐gossip social interactions was transmitted just as well as the intense gossip interactions. It was therefore concluded that human cultural transmission is biased toward information concerning social interactions over equivalent non‐social information.