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The Cultural Evolution of Human Goals
Jérémy Perez1, Cédric Colas1, Gaia Molinaro2
1Flowers AI & CogSci Lab, Centre Inria de l'université de Bordeaux.
Topics in Cognitive Science
|July 28, 2026
Summary
Cultural evolution is driven by how humans generate and select goals, influenced by intrinsic motivation. This framework explains how individuals and their environments co-evolve through goal-directed behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Cultural Evolution
Background:
- Human goals are diverse, varying across time and cultures, acting as drivers and products of cultural evolution.
- Existing theories primarily focus on how culture shapes goal attainment, neglecting the origins of goal pursuit.
- Cognitive mechanisms underlying goal dynamics in cultural evolution remain largely unspecified.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce the framework of cultural autotelic agents to explain goal dynamics in cultural evolution.
- Highlight the role of cognitive mechanisms in shaping goal generation, anticipation, and selection.
- Emphasize motivation, particularly intrinsic motivation, as a central force in cultural goal dynamics.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual framework development: cultural autotelic agents.
- Modeling the co-evolution of goals and solutions.
- Integrating cognitive mechanisms with cultural evolutionary dynamics.
Main Results:
- Cultural autotelic agents framework posits that individuals' goal mechanisms are shaped by culture, and their behaviors reshape culture.
- Intrinsic motivation is identified as a key driver for open-ended cultural evolution.
- Intrinsic motivation sustains non-instrumental pursuits, biases exploration towards complex goals, and maintains individual diversity.
Conclusions:
- Intrinsic motivation is crucial for understanding the open-ended nature of cultural evolution.
- The cultural autotelic agent framework provides a cognitive grounding for motivation in cultural goal dynamics.
- Future research should explore the interplay between intrinsic motivation, goal complexity, and cultural diversity.
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