Formalising prestige bias: Differences between models with first-order and second-order cues.

Area of Science:

• Social learning
• Cultural evolution
• Behavioral economics

Background:

• Human knowledge and behavior spread via social learning.
• Prestige bias, imitating prestigious individuals, is key but lacks formal definition.
• Existing definitions use first-order (appearance) or second-order (social attention) cues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To theoretically examine the effects of prestige bias on cultural evolution.
• To formulate and investigate the basic properties of prestige bias.
• To compare cultural evolutionary dynamics generated by two distinct prestige bias models.

Main Methods:

• Developed computational models of prestige bias.
• Incorporated two definitions of prestige: first-order cues and second-order cues.
• Compared the cultural evolutionary dynamics produced by each model.

Main Results:

• The two formalizations of prestige bias yield different cultural evolutionary dynamics.
• Distinguishing between first-order and second-order prestige cues is crucial.
• The chosen definition of prestige significantly impacts behavioral transmission and cultural spread.

Conclusions:

• Formalizing prestige bias requires careful consideration of cue types (first-order vs. second-order).
• Different prestige bias models lead to divergent outcomes in cultural evolution.
• This research provides a foundation for understanding prestige bias's role in shaping human societies.