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Cited by 360Language and cultural evolutionEvolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorEvolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 101 of the 108 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Five Misunderstandings About Cultural Evolution

Henrich, Joseph, Boyd, Robert, Richerson, Peter J.·2008·Human Nature
DOI 10.1007/s12110-008-9037-1
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Abstract

Recent debates about memetics have revealed some widespread misunderstandings about Darwinian approaches to cultural evolution. Drawing from these debates, this paper disputes five common claims: (1) mental representations are rarely discrete, and therefore models that assume discrete, gene-like particles (i.e., replicators) are useless; (2) replicators are necessary for cumulative, adaptive evolution; (3) content-dependent psychological biases are the only important processes that affect the spread of cultural representations; (4) the "cultural fitness" of a mental representation can be inferred from its successful transmission; and (5) selective forces only matter if the sources of variation are random. We close by sketching the outlines of a unified evolutionary science of culture.

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Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. Atran, S. (2002). The religious landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Conot, R. E. (1979). A streak of luck. New York: Seaview Books (distributed by Simon and Schuster).
  3. Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin’s dangerous idea. London: Penguin Press.
  4. Hager, T. (2007). The demon under the microscope. New York: Three Rivers Press.
  5. Lipo, C. P. (Ed.) (2006). Mapping our ancestors. Piscataway, NJ: Aldine Transaction.
  6. McElreath, R., & Boyd, R. (2007). Modeling the evolution of social behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  7. Taylor, G. (1996). Cultural selection. New York: Basic Books.

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Metadata

Authors
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J.
Affiliations
  • University of British Columbia (CA)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
  • University of California, Davis (US)
Corresponding author
Henrich, Joseph
ORCID
Venue
Human Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2008-04-19
Volume
19
Issue
2
Pages
119-137
ISSN
  • 1045-6767 (ISSN-L)
  • 1936-4776
DOI
10.1007/s12110-008-9037-1
OpenAlex
W2126674924
Cited by
360
References
108
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 45 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 16
FWCI
407.47
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • Human Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
  • Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
Keywords
cultural evolution, memetics, replicators, mental representation, cumulative cultural evolution, cultural transmission, psychological biases, Darwinian evolution

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