Experimental priming of independent and interdependent activity does not affect culturally variable psychological processes (2017)
Journal Article
Magid, K., Sarkol, V., & Mesoudi, A. (2017). Experimental priming of independent and interdependent activity does not affect culturally variable psychological processes. Royal Society Open Science, 4(5), Article 161025. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.161025

Cultural psychologists have shown that people from Western countries exhibit more independent self-construal and analytic (rule-based) cognition than people from East Asia, who exhibit more interdependent self-construal and holistic (relationship-bas... Read More about Experimental priming of independent and interdependent activity does not affect culturally variable psychological processes.

Do Online Voting Patterns Reflect Evolved Features of Human Cognition? An Exploratory Empirical Investigation (2015)
Journal Article
Priestley, M., & Mesoudi, A. (2015). Do Online Voting Patterns Reflect Evolved Features of Human Cognition? An Exploratory Empirical Investigation. PLoS ONE, 10(6), Article e0129703. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129703

Online votes or ratings can assist internet users in evaluating the credibility and appeal of the information which they encounter. For example, aggregator websites such as Reddit allow users to up-vote submitted content to make it more prominent, an... Read More about Do Online Voting Patterns Reflect Evolved Features of Human Cognition? An Exploratory Empirical Investigation.

Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution (2015)
Journal Article
Mesoudi, A., Chang, L., Murray, K., & Lu, H. (2015). Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1798), Article 20142209. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2209

Cultural evolutionary models have identified a range of conditions under which social learning (copying others) is predicted to be adaptive relative to asocial learning (learning on one's own), particularly in humans where socially learned informatio... Read More about Higher frequency of social learning in China than in the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution.

An experimental demonstration of the effect of group size on cultural accumulation (2014)
Journal Article
Kempe, M., & Mesoudi, A. (2014). An experimental demonstration of the effect of group size on cultural accumulation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35(4), 285-290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.02.009

Cumulative culture is thought to have played a major role in hominin evolution, and so an understanding of the factors that affect cultural accumulation is important for understanding human evolution. Population size may be one such factor, with larg... Read More about An experimental demonstration of the effect of group size on cultural accumulation.

Considering the role of time budgets on copy-error rates in material culture traditions: An experimental assessment (2014)
Journal Article
Schillinger, K., Mesoudi, A., & Lycett, S. (2014). Considering the role of time budgets on copy-error rates in material culture traditions: An experimental assessment. PLoS ONE, 9(5), Article e97157. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0097157

Ethnographic research highlights that there are constraints placed on the time available to produce cultural artefacts in differing circumstances. Given that copying error, or cultural ‘mutation’, can have important implications for the evolutionary... Read More about Considering the role of time budgets on copy-error rates in material culture traditions: An experimental assessment.

Experimental and theoretical models of human cultural evolution (2014)
Journal Article
Kempe, M., & Mesoudi, A. (2014). Experimental and theoretical models of human cultural evolution. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 5(3), 317-326. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1288

The modern field of cultural evolution is now over 30 years old, and an extensive body of theory and data has been amassed. This article reviews models of cultural evolution, both experimental and theoretical, and surveys what they can tell us about... Read More about Experimental and theoretical models of human cultural evolution.

Making sense of culture (2013)
Journal Article
Mesoudi, A. (2013). Making sense of culture. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 28(11), 626-627. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.05.016

Sex-biased sound symbolism in English-language first names (2013)
Journal Article
Pitcher, B., Mesoudi, A., & McElligott, A. (2013). Sex-biased sound symbolism in English-language first names. PLoS ONE, 8(6), Article e64825. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064825

Sexual selection has resulted in sex-based size dimorphism in many mammals, including humans. In Western societies, average to taller stature men and comparatively shorter, slimmer women have higher reproductive success and are typically considered m... Read More about Sex-biased sound symbolism in English-language first names.

Is non-genetic inheritance just a proximate mechanism? A corroboration of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (2013)
Journal Article
Mesoudi, A., Blanchet, S., Charmantier, A., Danchin, E., Fogarty, L., Jablonka, E., …Pujol, B. (2013). Is non-genetic inheritance just a proximate mechanism? A corroboration of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Biological Theory, 7(3), 189-195. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-013-0091-5

What role does non-genetic inheritance play in evolution? In recent work we have independently and collectively argued that the existence and scope of non-genetic inheritance systems, including epigenetic inheritance, niche construction/ecological in... Read More about Is non-genetic inheritance just a proximate mechanism? A corroboration of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.

Adult Learners in a Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning (2012)
Journal Article
Atkisson, C., Mesoudi, A., & O'Brien, M. (2012). Adult Learners in a Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning. Evolutionary Psychology, 10(3), 519-537

Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary the... Read More about Adult Learners in a Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning.

An Experimental Test of the Accumulated Copying Error Model of Cultural Mutation for Acheulean Handaxe Size (2012)
Journal Article
Kempe, M., Lycett, S., & Mesoudi, A. (2012). An Experimental Test of the Accumulated Copying Error Model of Cultural Mutation for Acheulean Handaxe Size. PLoS ONE, 7(11), Article e48333. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048333

Archaeologists interested in explaining changes in artifact morphology over long time periods have found it useful to create models in which the only source of change is random and unintentional copying error, or ‘cultural mutation’. These models can... Read More about An Experimental Test of the Accumulated Copying Error Model of Cultural Mutation for Acheulean Handaxe Size.

An experimental comparison of human social learning strategies: payoff-biased social learning is adaptive but underused. (2011)
Journal Article
Mesoudi, A. (2011). An experimental comparison of human social learning strategies: payoff-biased social learning is adaptive but underused. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(5), 334-342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.12.001

Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution. (2011)
Journal Article
Danchin, E., Charmantier, A., Champagne, F., Mesoudi, A., Pujol, B., & Blanchet, S. (2011). Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution. Nature Reviews Genetics, 12(7), 475-486. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3028

Variable cultural acquisition costs constrain cumulative cultural evolution (2011)
Journal Article
Mesoudi, A. (2011). Variable cultural acquisition costs constrain cumulative cultural evolution. PLoS ONE, 6(3), Article e18239. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018239

One of the hallmarks of the human species is our capacity for cumulative culture, in which beneficial knowledge and technology is accumulated over successive generations. Yet previous analyses of cumulative cultural change have failed to consider the... Read More about Variable cultural acquisition costs constrain cumulative cultural evolution.

The cultural dynamics of copycat suicide (2009)
Journal Article
Mesoudi, A. (2009). The cultural dynamics of copycat suicide. PLoS ONE, 4(9), Article e7252. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007252

The observation that suicides sometimes cluster in space and/or time has led to suggestions that these clusters are caused by the social learning of suicide-related behaviours, or “copycat suicides”. Point clusters are clusters of suicides localised... Read More about The cultural dynamics of copycat suicide.