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Meaning Through Culture & Social Norms - Coggle Diagram
Meaning Through Culture & Social Norms
Culture Shape Meaning
Gene-Culture Coevolution (Richard & Boyd, 2005; Mesoudi, 2017)
Variation
Competition
Inheritance
Evidence
Co-operation between genes & environment
If there is cultural variation in social norma
Lack of universality suggest genes alone cannot drive behaviour
Can important traits be socially learned
Suggest innateness not the whole story
Co-Operation a Social Norm
Cultural variation
Social learning
Study: Cultural Variation (Henrich et al., 2001)
A: Ultimatum game
M: P1 split £10, P2 accept division/reject & no-one gets anything
R: Substantial cross-cultural variation
Western tend to have 50/50 split
Neurodiverse tend to accept anything as is always profit
Tsimane make lowest offers (~25%)
Ache & Lamelara affer >50%
Hadza reject most but Ache rarely reject
Au & Gnau reject both unfair & hyperfair offers
Significance
Measure of co-operation
P2 can punish unfairness when co-operation expected
Implication
Tsimane operate out of family
Ache being stingy an insult
Lamelara co-operation high in life
Hunt Wales
Au & Gnau competitive gift giving
Generous gift seen as being indebtedded
Study: Social Learning
Learning
Leadership
Features
Study: Learning (House et al., 2013)
M: Child observe punishment of stealing/giving away stickers
R: 5yo display same co-operative tendencies as adult of same culture
Observing stealing stickers the child punishes stealer
Observing giving away stickers the child punishes generosity
Implication
Period of learning as child
Study: Leadership (Henrich et al., 2015; Lenfesty & Morgan, 2019
R: Co-operation kickstarted by prestigious leader
Study: Features
Upheld w. conformity (Henrich & Boyd, 2001)
Prevents focus on pay-offs (Molleman et al., 2013)
Majority of Ps are conditional co-operators (Li et al., 2021; Molleman et al., 2019)
Co-Operation & Gene-Culture Coevolution (Gintis, 2003; Markov & Markov, 2020; Tomasello & Gonzales-Corbua, 2017)
Genetic hitchhiking
Guilt & shame
Big God religions
Social norms favour co-operation
Genetic Hitchhiking
Evolved to conform in group
Appreciate approval of others & part of that is cooperation in group
Cultural Variation & Learning
Cultural variation
Social learning
Cultural Variation Goals
Instrumental goals
Conventional norms
Conventional Norms (Legare, 2017; Legare & Nielsen, 2015)
Stricter conformity even to superfluous actions
Instrumental Norms
End-goal important
Strict imitation not necessary
Cultural Variation (Clegg & Legare, 2016)
P: Children 5-8
When start to observe culture & social norms start taking place
M: Children observe behaviours when stringing necklace
R: Children copying depend
Follow more if social norm/convention than skill
Copy all steps if told is social norm across-culture
US less likely to copy than Ni-Vanatu
US parents point out individual players to child & emphasise smartness while Ni-Vanatu point out rigid copying child
Implications
Perception of good learner diff across culture
US traditional education
Ni-Vanatu see & copy education
Collectivism more likely to copy irrelevant details
Social Learning (Mesoudi et al., 2015)
M: Design arrowhead to shoot buffalo
R: Copying dependent on culture
UK less likely to copy other
Hong Kong less likely to copy other
Chinese immigrants more likely to copy other
CM most likely to copy other
Implication
Immigrants adapted new culture to fit in w. new envrionment
Blindness of Gene-Culture Coevolution (Mesoudi, 2008)
Human eye badly designed
Brain must process
As evolved from pre-sight animal
Miscoordination always bad
Co-ordinating on suboptimal social norms preferable to miscoordination (Efferson et al., 2020; Kets et al., 2021)
Suboptimal norms can occur via drift (Rorabaugh, 2014)
Suboptimal norms can be maintained by norm psychology (Gintis, 2011; Tomasello & Gonzalez-Corbura, 2017)
Example: Arbitrary Social Norms
Football starting formation (Mesoudi, 2020)
Example: Harmful Social Norms
Female genital cutting (Efferson et al., 2020)
Witchcraft beliefs (Tanaka et al., 2009)
Mob behaviour in crowds (Raafat et al., 2009)
Example: Bad Sight
See figure in corner
As humans social creature
Alone in dark scary room, eye thinks is comforting to see another person
Recap & Summary
Parental Investment Theory (Trivers, 1972)
Female reproductive success dependent on high-quality long-term partner
Male reproductive success dependent on no. willing women
Women Reproductive Success
Eggs costly & limited
Pregnancy, childbirth, & lactation
Women Look for In Relationship (Buss)
Traits that suggest supportive partner
Threatened by lack of resources
Feel emotional jealousy in male partner form another relationship w. woman
Men Reproductive Success
Sperm cheap & replenishable
Men Look for In Partner (Buss)
Traits that suggest fertile partner
Threatened by paternal uncertainty
Feel sexual jealousy if female partner sleeps with another man
Biases
Women experience commitment-scepticism bias
Men experience sexual overperception bias
Culture Shape Meaning Summary
Gene-culture coevolution suggest social info subject to same rules of evolution as genetic info
Culture drives as much as genes
Evidence for culturally driven meaning is cultural variation in social norm & evidence norms socially learned
Cooperation & way learn social norms is heavily influenced by culture
May learn maladaptive/arbitrary social norms by similar/blind evolutionary process
Culture Shaping Meaning
Mental Health (Nesse, 2023)
Mental health evolved to solve an issue
Issues
Ancestors & possession role of traditional Xhosa speaking African healers (Mzimkulu & Simbayi, 2006)
Witchcraft beliefs common in similar cultures (Adinkrah, 2011)
Talking to pastor over therapist in black Christian communities (Bilkins et al., 2016)
Example: Mental Health
Witchcraft
Neurodivergence
Depression
Depression
Wendigo illness
Invisible chicken tail
Invisible Chicken Tail
In Native American tribe
More socially acceptable way to say are having bad day
Windigo Illness
In Native American cultures
Specific type of depression when way of life degrading before eyes
Native American culture colonised & often live in places more affected by climate change
Significance
Culture specific depression disorder
Witchcraft
Child accused of witchcraft
Disproportionally children with mental health/neurodivergence
Child goes through exorcism
Range from neglect to abuse
Child can be accused multiple times
Reindeer King (Hunt & Jaeggi, 2022)
In Inuit tribe
Man who lived on outskirts who not interact much w. tribe
But was able to identify & diagnose reindeer
In Western culture would be diagnosed as Autistic
In Inuit tribe area of interest valuable to group
Loved by tribe
Theory of Mind
Necessary to function as social group
Necessary to exploit others
Opacity of Mind Beliefs (Curtin et al., 2020)
Do not try to make inferences onto other internal states
Example: Opacity of Mind Cultures
Bosavi of Papua New Guinea
Bosavi
T of M not exist in all cultures
Emotion not known until other verbally expresses that
Behavioural symptoms are just actions, not emotions
Love
Monogamous bonds necessary for procreation of large-brained children
Upheld
Present in polyandrous societies (Starkweather & Hames, 2012)
Present in societies where 'love' not exist (Hill et al., 2011
Against
Women
Men
Non-traditional relationships
Non-Traditional Relationships
Polyamorous individuals (Valentova et al., 2020)
Love multiple people at once
Aromatic/asexual community (Scherer et al., 2023)
Not feel romantic attachment/sexual attraction
Women
Pursue short-term extramarital relationships (Greiling & Buss, 2000)
Preference for strong, rich men exaggerated in cultures where women lack resources (Arnocky et al., 2022
Dual-Mating Hypothesis (Greiling & Buss, 2000)
Women find men who are more attractive than their partner
Men
Contribute extraordinary amount to childcare (Lew-Levy et al., 2019)
Preference for virginity (Scelza, 2013)
Himba tribe have strong female sexual autonomy
Jealousy
Women feel emotional jealousy if male partner forms another relationship with women
Men feel sexual jealousy if female partner sleeps with other man
Evolved to ensure paternity
Cinderella Hypothesis (Daly & Wilson, 1999)
Evil stepmother effect
Stepmother more likely to kill stepchild than biological child
Biggest threat to relationship is man w. other children
Want to increase resources to biological children so remove them from stepchildren
Limitation (Willführ & Ganon, 2013)
Ignores base rates
Does not replicate univsersally
Partible Paternity
Idea that when woman sleep w. multiple men & have baby the baby a mix of multiple men
Study: Partible Paternity (Masoudi & Lala, 2007)
R: South American partible paternity show decreased sexual jealousy
As believe child yours/claim to child no matter how many men she sleep w.
Men can even encourage women to sleep w. other men to select good genes/traits
Limitation
Affected by perception
Men less likely to break up if cuckolded if other men don't know he's being cheated on
Social Fatherhood
Regardless if child yours/not, will raise them
If she your wife, her children are your children
Paternity certainty but perform father roles even if not biologically his
Know is/not his
Study: Social Fatherhood (Prall & Scelza, 2020)
P: Himba tribe
R: Marriage not about love, is about trust
Man may marry child, he takes her to tribe & raises her
Woman when of age can approach other people
Tribe good at tracking paternity
Female choice important & women know & approve of wives but may feel sexual jealousy
Male knows who women boyfriends are
Study: Cultural Similarity (Scelza et al., 2020)
R: Men & women w/in same culture more similar to each other
Related to degree of investment in men
Related to social norms regarding sex
Cognition
Women experience commitment-skepticism bias
Men experience sexual overperception bias
Commitment-Skepticism Bias
Found in American women (Haselton, 2003)
Found in German women (Cyrus et al., 2011)
Limitation
Not often studied
Not studies cross-culturally
WEIRD populations
Sexual Overperception Bias
Replicated in Japan (Hirashi et al., 2016)
Replicated in Norway (Benedixen, 2014)
Limitation
Lack of replication in France & Chile (Perillox et al., 2015)
Americanised scales may not reflect cross-cultural dating behaviour
Less likely to replicate after #MeToo (Bradner et al., 2021)
Suggest role of norms