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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Fabricating Complex Culture Substrates Using Robotic Microcontact Printing (R-µCP) and Sequential Nucleophilic Substitution

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Published on: October 31, 2014

Runaway cultural niche construction.

Luke Rendell¹, Laurel Fogarty, Kevin N Laland

¹School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Bute Building, Westburn Lane, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TS, UK. ler4@st-andrews.ac.uk

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences

|February 16, 2011

Summary

Cultural niche construction drives human evolution by modifying local resources, leading to gene-based trait selection similar to runaway sexual selection. This process can even favor genes enhancing cultural learning capabilities.

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Last Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Fabricating Complex Culture Substrates Using Robotic Microcontact Printing (R-µCP) and Sequential Nucleophilic Substitution

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Published on: October 28, 2020

Area of Science:

Human Evolution
Cultural Evolution
Genetics

Background:

Cultural niche construction significantly influences human population selection and recent evolution.
Previous theoretical models have not fully addressed the localized impacts of cultural niche construction.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how cultural processes, through local niche construction, can drive gene selection in human populations.
To explore the dynamics of cultural niche construction and its coevolutionary relationship with genetic traits.

Main Methods:

Utilized spatially explicit coevolutionary models.
Simulated the interplay between cultural learning, local niche modification, and genetic trait selection.

Main Results:

Cultural niche construction can initiate a 'runaway' selection process, analogous to sexual selection, favoring gene-based traits.
Gene-based traits hitchhiked to fixation via statistical associations with cultural practices, even under costly or counteracting transmission biases.
Secondary hitchhiking favored genetic variants that enhance cultural learning capabilities.

Conclusions:

Runaway cultural niche construction is a significant factor in human evolution.
This mechanism helps explain key human characteristics: large relative brain size, potent niche construction capacity, and high reliance on culture.