Rules as Basic Units of Sociocultural Selection

In the context of applying behavior-analytic principles to the study of the evolution of human societies, we propose that rules constitute the basic units of sociocultural selection. Such thesis is based on a critical analysis of the ideas concerning sociocultural selection proposed by Skinner and Baum. Its point of departure is a new functional concept of rule uttering, defined as a special type of verbal behavioral pattern, whose probability of occurrence depends upon their probability of altering the frequency of certain kind of behavior in the repertoire of a given individual or group of individuals. These relatively lasting changes in the behavior of recipients include the uttering of rules appropriate to specific types of problem situations, which increase the likelihood of responses that solve the problems faced by the social group. According to the proposed model, rule-uttering behavioral patterns include rule application, rule transmission and rule creation, which are functionally distinguished by the social consequences they produce. Patterns of rule uttering are selected by operant mechanisms, in the sense that those that do not increase the probability of solving problems tend to stop occurring. It is proposed that the occurrence probability of generalized social reinforcers, associated to different functionally specialized social systems (e.g., money in the economy, sanctions in the legal system), constitutes the main consequence responsible for rule-uttering selection.