Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change
Abstract
We propose a conceptual model that maps the causal pathways relating biological evolution to cultural change. It builds on conventional evolutionary theory by placing emphasis on the capacity of organisms to modify sources of natural selection in their environment (niche construction) and by broadening the evolutionary dynamic to incorporate ontogenetic and cultural processes. In this model, phenotypes have a much more active role in evolution than generally conceived. This sheds light on hominid evolution, on the evolution of culture, and on altruism and cooperation. Culture amplifies the capacity of human beings to modify sources of natural selection in their environments to the point where that capacity raises some new questions about the processes of human adaptation.
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Niche construction theory holds that organisms actively reshape their environment.
“This gap corresponds to the missing bottom-up direction in niche construction theory (Odling-Smee et al., 2003; Laland et al., 2000; Laland and O'Brien, 2011), which holds that organisms actively reshape their environment.”
From Social Reality Construction via Active Inference: Modeling the Dialectic of Conformity and Creativity (2026) · cites this paper as Laland et al., 2000
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Social Reality Construction via Active Inference: Modeling the Dialectic of Conformity and Creativity
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“This gap corresponds to the missing bottom-up direction in niche construction theory (Odling-Smee et al., 2003; Laland et al., 2000; Laland and O’Brien, 2011), which holds that organisms actively reshape their environment.”
- Authors
- Laland, K. N., Odling-Smee, J., & Feldman, M. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Stanford University (US)
- Venue
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2000-02
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 131-146
- ISSN
- 0140-525X (ISSN-L)
- 1469-1825
- OpenAlex
- W2103596824
- Cited by
- 1,103
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 55 · 2020: 97 · 2019: 62 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 56 · 2014: 45 · 2013: 33 · 2012: 71
- FWCI
- 493.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM28016, R01GM028016)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Keywords
- niche construction, evolution, cultural change, cultural evolution, hominid evolution, altruism, cooperation, human adaptation, natural selection, ontogeny, conceptual model
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Adaptation, Psychological, Culture, Biological Evolution, Humans, Psychological Theory
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