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Towards a general model of cultural inheritance
Hillerová, Pavlína ; Tureček, Petr (advisor) ; Šaffa, Gabriel (referee)
Hypertrophied human culture is based on a specific propensity for social learning. During the transmission of information, a myriad of external and internal influences act on both the transmitor and recipient. Previous studies have focused on various biases (prestige bias, which causes, among others, a tendency to learn from older and more experienced individuals, or negative information bias, which makes us more likely to remember what to avoid etc.) that influence which cultural variants will successfully spread and how they will evolve. Some works delve into (among other things, bias-induced) cultural attraction, i.e., the tendency to transform information in a particular direction, while others treat cultural elements as genes; as nearly immutable entities. Almost all of them, however, (1.) model culture as composed from discrete entities and (2.) move within a single framework that they try to explore thoroughly. The present thesis attempts to bridge these gaps and to show the possibilities of studying cultural traits on a continuous scale. Using data from an application styled as a trivia guessing game, it aims to quantify the influence of different factors on the transmission of cultural information. Participants are presented with previous participants' estimates of different lengths, weights and...
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The Cultural Attraction Theory and its Empirical Evidence
Hillerová, Pavlína ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Horský, Jan (referee)
One of the approaches to study cultural evolution is the cultural attraction theory. This thesis aims to introduce this theory via literature analysis and subject it's empirical backing to a critique. The opening chapter briefly presents the theory and describes the circumstances of it's formation. Next, I outline the specific theoretical concepts (culture as a chain of representations, attractors, transformations). Mainly, the latter are complemented with empirical studies, both supporting and conflicting the respective theory. The last part of the thesis compares cultural attraction theory against dual inheritance theory, which has been contrasted by the aforementioned from the very beginning. Both of these perspectives have it's specifics and can provide an explanation for distinct cultural phenomena. These two theories can complement one another and together constitute an integral theory for cultural evolution study.
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The Cultural Attraction Theory and its Empirical Evidence
Hillerová, Pavlína ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Horský, Jan (referee)
One of the approaches to study cultural evolution is the cultural attraction theory. This thesis aims to introduce this theory via literature analysis and subject it's empirical backing to a critique. The opening chapter briefly presents the theory and describes the circumstances of it's formation. Next, I outline the specific theoretical concepts (culture as a chain of representations, attractors, transformations). Mainly, the latter are complemented with empirical studies, both supporting and conflicting the respective theory. The last part of the thesis compares cultural attraction theory against dual inheritance theory, which has been contrasted by the aforementioned from the very beginning. Both of these perspectives have it's specifics and can provide an explanation for distinct cultural phenomena. These two theories can complement one another and together constitute an integral theory for cultural evolution study.
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