The DOI matches its Crossref record; 45 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Why Copy Others? Insights from the Social Learning Strategies Tournament
Open accessAbstract
It Pays to Be a Copy Cat: Does it pay to copy what others do? Rendell et al. (p. 208 ) elected to copy Robert Axelrod's 1979 tournament in which strategies for playing the iterated prisoner's dilemma game were pitted against each other until an overall winner emerged—the tit-for-tat strategy. In the 2008 tournament, 100 social learning strategies designed to cope with a changing environment competed against each other; the winning strategy involved sampling the behaviors of other players periodically, rather than exploring the environment alone.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Its effectiveness can be attributed to the flexibility with which participants engage in these two mechanisms [Enquist et al., 2008, Rendell et al., 2010, Mesoudi and Thornton, 2018].”
From Artificial Generational Intelligence: Cultural Accumulation in Reinforcement Learning (2024) · cites this paper as Rendell et al., 2010
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach.
Guthery, F. S., Burnham, K. P., & Anderson, D. R. (2003) · The Journal of Wildlife Management · doi:10.2307/3802723 · Cited by 41,495
Axelrod, R., & Hamilton, W. D. (1981) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7466396 · Cited by 20,065
Culture and the Evolutionary Process
Griesemer, J. R., Boyd, R. T., & Richerson, P. J. (1986) · Ornithological Applications · doi:10.2307/1367778 · Cited by 7,133
Self-citationFinite-time Analysis of the Multiarmed Bandit Problem
Auer, P., Cesa-Bianchi, N., & Fischer, P. (2002) · Machine Learning · doi:10.1023/a:1013689704352 · Cited by 6,033
Resource Competition and Community Structure
Hassell, M. P., & Tilman, D. G. (1984) · Journal of Animal Ecology · doi:10.2307/4549 · Cited by 4,238
Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution
Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2004) · doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226712130.001.0001 · Cited by 2,793
Self-citationHenrich, J., & Gil-White, F. J. (2001) · Evolution and Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/s1090-5138(00)00071-4 · Cited by 2,500
Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life
NOWAK, M. A. (2006) · doi:10.2307/j.ctvjghw98 · Cited by 2,438
Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market
Salganik, M. J., Dodds, P. S., & Watts, D. J. (2006) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1121066 · Cited by 2,231
The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans?
Suddendorf, T., & Corballis, M. C. (2007) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x07001975 · Cited by 2,031
Laland, K. N. (2004) · Learning & Behavior · doi:10.3758/bf03196002 · Cited by 1,551
Self-citationPublic Information: From Nosy Neighbors to Cultural Evolution
Danchin, É., Giraldeau, L., Valone, T. J., & Wagner, R. H. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1098254 · Cited by 1,513
Subset Selection in Regression
Miller, A. J. (2003) · Technometrics · doi:10.1198/tech.2003.s144 · Cited by 1,501
Resource competition and community structure.
Tilman, D. (1982) · PubMed · Cited by 1,265
SOCIAL LEARNING IN ANIMALS: CATEGORIES AND MECHANISMS
Heyes, C. M. (1994) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.1994.tb01506.x · Cited by 1,046
The evolution of cultural evolution
Henrich, J., & Mcelreath, R. (2003) · Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews · doi:10.1002/evan.10110 · Cited by 1,024
Resource Competition and Community Structure. (MPB-17), Volume 17
Tilman, D. (1982) · doi:10.1515/9780691209654 · Cited by 939
Cultural transmission and evolution: a quantitative approach.
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (1981) · PubMed · Cited by 921
Self-citationSchlag, K. H. (1998) · Journal of Economic Theory · doi:10.1006/jeth.1997.2347 · Cited by 820
Producers and scroungers: A general model and its application to captive flocks of house sparrows
Barnard, C. J., & Sibly, R. M. (1981) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/s0003-3472(81)80117-0 · Cited by 766
Does Biology Constrain Culture?
Rogers, A. R. (1988) · American Anthropologist · doi:10.1525/aa.1988.90.4.02a00030 · Cited by 647
Chapter 5 Insights for Behavioral Ecology from Behavioral Syndromes
Sih, A., & Bell, A. M. (2008) · Advances in the study of behavior · doi:10.1016/s0065-3454(08)00005-3 · Cited by 627
Potential disadvantages of using socially acquired information
Giraldeau, L., Valone, T. J., & Templeton, J. J. (2002) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2002.1065 · Cited by 598
Imitation in Animals and Artifacts
Dautenhahn, K., & Nehaniv, C. (2002) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/3676.001.0001 · Cited by 586
The Complexity of Optimal Queuing Network Control
Papadimitriou, C. H., & Tsitsiklis, J. N. (1999) · Mathematics of Operations Research · doi:10.1287/moor.24.2.293 · Cited by 497
Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (1981) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9780691209357 · Cited by 437
Self-citationWhy does culture increase human adaptability?
Boyd, R. T., & Richerson, P. J. (1995) · Ethology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1016/0162-3095(94)00073-g · Cited by 433
Self-citationChapter 3 Social Processes Influencing Learning in Animals: A Review of the Evidence
Hoppitt, W., & Laland, K. N. (2008) · Advances in the study of behavior · doi:10.1016/s0065-3454(08)00003-x · Cited by 327
Self-citationImitation—theory and experimental evidence
Apesteguía, J., Huck, S., & Oechssler, J. (2006) · Journal of Economic Theory · doi:10.1016/j.jet.2006.07.006 · Cited by 292
van Bergen, Y., Coolen, I., & Laland, K. N. (2004) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2684 · Cited by 282
Self-citationHenrich, J., & Boyd, R. (2002) · Journal of Cognition and Culture · doi:10.1163/156853702320281836 · Cited by 257
Self-citationKameda, T., & Nakanishi, D. (2002) · Evolution and Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/s1090-5138(02)00101-0 · Cited by 252
Critical Social Learning: A Solution to Rogers's Paradox of Nonadaptive Culture
Enquist, M., Eriksson, K., & Ghirlanda, S. (2007) · American Anthropologist · doi:10.1525/aa.2007.109.4.727 · Cited by 245
Self-citationIndividual Versus Social Learning: Evolutionary Analysis in a Fluctuating Environment.
Feldman, M. W., Aoki, K., & Kumm, J. (1996) · Anthropological Science · doi:10.1537/ase.104.209 · Cited by 239
Self-citationLearning and Strategic Pricing
Bergemann, D., & Välimäki, J. (1996) · Econometrica · doi:10.2307/2171959 · Cited by 238
Whitehead, H., Rendell, L. E., Osborne, R. W., & Würsig, B. (2004) · Biological Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.017 · Cited by 210
Self-citationThe evolution of social learning rules: Payoff-biased and frequency-dependent biased transmission
Kendal, J. R., Giraldeau, L., & Laland, K. N. (2009) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.05.029 · Cited by 180
Self-citationWhy behaviour patterns that animals learn socially are locally adaptive
Galef, B. G. (1995) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1006/anbe.1995.0164 · Cited by 157
Dynamic priority allocation via restless bandit marginal productivity indices
Niño‐Mora, J. (2007) · Top · doi:10.1007/s11750-007-0025-0 · Cited by 136
Evolution of social learning: a mathematical analysis
Wakano, J. Y., Aoki, K., & Feldman, M. W. (2004) · Theoretical Population Biology · doi:10.1016/j.tpb.2004.06.005 · Cited by 131
Self-citationRendell, L. E., Fogarty, L., & Laland, K. N. (2009) · Evolution · doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00817.x · Cited by 126
Self-citationNine-spined sticklebacks deploy a hill-climbing social learning strategy
Kendal, J. R., Rendell, L. E., Pike, T. W., & Laland, K. N. (2009) · Behavioral Ecology · doi:10.1093/beheco/arp016 · Cited by 99
Self-citationReinforcement learning and evolutionary algorithms for non-stationary multi-armed bandit problems
Koulouriotis, D. E., & Xanthopoulos, A. S. (2007) · Applied Mathematics and Computation · doi:10.1016/j.amc.2007.07.043 · Cited by 82
Chapter 4 Strategies for Social Learning
Galef, B. G. (2009) · Advances in the study of behavior · doi:10.1016/s0065-3454(09)39004-x · Cited by 66
Simple learning rules to cope with changing environments
Groß, R., Houston, A. I., Collins, E. J., McNamara, J. M., Dechaume‐Moncharmont, F., & Franks, N. R. (2008) · Journal of The Royal Society Interface · doi:10.1098/rsif.2007.1348 · Cited by 42
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mechanisms of Social Cognition
Frith, C. D., & Frith, U. (2012) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100449 · Cited by 973
Social Learning Strategies: Bridge-Building between Fields
Kendal, R. L., Boogert, N. J., Rendell, L. E., Laland, K. N., Webster, M., & Jones, P. L. (2018) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.04.003 · Cited by 663
Self-citationEvolutionary mechanisms for loneliness
Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., & Boomsma, D. I. (2014) · Cognition and Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2013.837379 · Cited by 576
“Social learning, in turn, promotes the development of common knowledge and practices, that is culture, adding to the centripetal forces banding individuals together to form adaptable, co-operative groups (Rendell et al., 2010).”
Potent Social Learning and Conformity Shape a Wild Primate’s Foraging Decisions
van de Waal, E., Borgeaud, C., & Whiten, A. (2013) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1232769 · Cited by 587
Exploration versus exploitation in space, mind, and society
Hills, T. T., Todd, P. M., Lazer, D. M. J., Redish, A. D., & Couzin, I. D. (2014) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.10.004 · Cited by 600
Metadata
- Authors
- Rendell, L., Boyd, R., Cownden, D., Enquist, M., Eriksson, K., Feldman, M. W., Fogarty, L., Ghirlanda, S., Lillicrap, T., & Laland, K. N.
- Affiliations
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Queen's University (CA)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- Stanford University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rendell, L.
- Laland, K. N.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2010-04-09
- Volume
- 328
- Issue
- 5975
- Pages
- 208-213
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- PMC
- PMC2989663
- OpenAlex
- W2038900621
- Cited by
- 811
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 55 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 48 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 54 · 2015: 62 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 67
- FWCI
- 1771.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM028016)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- social learning, copying behavior, trial-and-error learning, information filtering, adaptive behavior, learning strategies, evolutionary game theory
- MeSH terms
- Cooperative Behavior, Cultural Evolution, Games, Experimental, Humans, Imitative Behavior, Learning, Problem Solving, Social Behavior, Software, Linear Models, Observation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
