Spreading Non-natural Concepts: The Role of Intuitive Conceptual Structures in Memory and Transmission of Cultural Materials
Abstract
The four experiments presented support Boyer's theory that counterintuitive concepts have transmission advantages that account for the commonness and ease of communicating many non-natural cultural concepts. In Experiment 1, 48 American college students recalled expectation-violating items from culturally unfamiliar folk stories better than more mundane items in the stories. In Experiment 2, 52 American college students in a modified serial reproduction task transmitted expectation-violating items in a written narrative more successfully than bizarre or common items. In Experiments 3 and 4, these findings were replicated with orally presented and transmitted stimuli, and found to persist even after three months. To sum, concepts with single expectation-violating features were more successfully transmitted than concepts that were entirely congruent with category-level expectations, even if they were highly unusual or bizarre. This transmission advantage for counterintuitive concepts may explain, in part, why such concepts are so prevalent across cultures and so readily spread.
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Too many violations can lead to confusion as the audience struggles to understand even basic story features.
“Equally, too many violations can lead to confusion as the audience struggles to understand even basic story features (Barrett & Nyhof, 2001).”
From Stories in Action. (2022) · cites this paper as Barrett & Nyhof, 2001
Cites
REMEMBERING: A STUDY IN EXPERIMENTAL AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Bartlett, F. C., & Burt, C. (1933) · British Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8279.1933.tb02913.x · Cited by 7,475 · see citing works
Conceptualizing a Nonnatural Entity: Anthropomorphism in God Concepts
Barrett, J. L., & Keil, F. C. (1996) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1006/cogp.1996.0017 · Cited by 769 · see citing works
Self-citationFaces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion
McCutcheon, R. T., & Guthrie, S. E. (1994) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.2307/1386639 · Cited by 200 · see citing works
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Iterated learning: Intergenerational knowledge transmission reveals inductive biases
Kalish, M. L., Griffiths, T. L., & Lewandowsky, S. (2007) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/bf03194066 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Acerbi, A., & Mesoudi, A. (2015) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-015-9490-2 · Cited by 198 · see citing works
“This approach has generated findings using laboratory experiments (e.g. Boyer and Ramble 2001; Barrett and Nyhof 2001; Norenzayan et al. 2006; Fessler et al. 2014) and analyses of historical (e.g. Nichols 2002; Norenzayan et al. 2006; Morin 2013) and cross-cultural (e.g. Atran 1998) datasets.”
Walsh, J., Vaida, N., Coman, A., & Fiske, S. T. (2022) · Psychological Science in the Public Interest · doi:10.1177/15291006231161337 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
- Authors
- Barrett, J., & Nyhof, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognition and Culture
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Published
- 2001
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 69-100
- ISSN
- 1567-7095 (ISSN-L)
- 1568-5373
- OpenAlex
- W2037408089
- Cited by
- 357
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 241.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognition and Culture (publishedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
- Keywords
- counterintuitive concepts, cultural transmission, folk tales, expectancy violation, serial reproduction, oral transmission, cultural universals, Boyer
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