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When does selection favor learning from the old? Social learning in age-structured populations
Dominik Deffner1,2,3, Richard McElreath1
1Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Plos One
|April 15, 2022
Summary
Social learning evolves even without boosting population fitness, but age structure influences cultural adaptation. Demography and learning strategies like "copy-the-old" or "copy-the-young" shape adaptive behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Social learning theory
- Demography
Background:
- Culture and demography are key to human adaptation.
- The role of social learning in age-structured populations is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To model the evolution of social learning in age-structured populations.
- To investigate how demography affects cultural adaptation and learning strategies.
Main Methods:
- Mathematical modeling of social learning evolution.
- Individual-based simulations comparing environmental variability.
Main Results:
- Social learning can evolve without increasing population fitness (Rogers' paradox).
- Demographic filtering and cultural transmission drive cumulative adaptation.
- Older individuals exhibit more adaptive behavior in stable environments.
- Age-biased learning strategies depend on error rates and environmental conditions.
Conclusions:
- Age structure significantly alters cultural evolution dynamics.
- Demography plays a crucial role in cultural adaptation and age-biased social learning.
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