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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 30, 2026

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors

Published on: January 25, 2018

The evolutionary basis of human social learning.

T J H Morgan¹, L E Rendell, M Ehn

¹Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Bute Medical Building, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TS, UK.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|July 29, 2011

Summary

Humans adaptively use social information for learning and decision-making. This study reveals that factors like group size and task difficulty influence social learning strategies, confirming adaptive learning rules.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Evolutionary Psychology
Behavioral Economics

Background:

Humans heavily rely on culturally transmitted information, necessitating the integration of social and asocial learning.
Formal theories predict natural selection favors adaptive learning strategies, but empirical evidence is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the factors influencing human social information use.
To determine if social learning behavior is adaptive across various tasks.
To test nine hypotheses derived from theoretical models of social learning.

Main Methods:

Conducted a series of computer-based experiments to observe social learning.
Systematically varied factors such as the number of demonstrators, consensus, task difficulty, and costs of asocial learning.
Analyzed how these factors influenced participants' use of social information.

Main Results:

The use of social information was significantly influenced by the number of demonstrators, their consensus, subject confidence, task difficulty, and learning costs.
Subject and demonstrator performance also played a role in social information utilization.
Observed social learning behaviors aligned with adaptive predictions across different experimental conditions.

Conclusions:

Human social learning is regulated by adaptive learning rules, adjusting based on environmental and social cues.
Empirical evidence strongly supports theoretical models predicting adaptive social learning strategies.
This research provides a comprehensive understanding of the flexibility and adaptiveness of human social learning.