Outputs (42)

Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511 (2023)
Journal Article
Sakamoto Martini, G., Kendal, J., & Tehrani, J. J. (2023). Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511. Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies, 64(1-2), 7-30. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabula-2023-0002

This case study contributes to recent attempts to apply “phylomemetic” methods derived from computational biology to oral traditions, where the aim is to trace the mutation and diversification of folk narratives as they get passed on from generation... Read More about Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511.

Cultural niche construction with application to fertility control: A model for education and social transmission of contraceptive use (2023)
Journal Article
Denton, K. K., Kendal, J. R., Ihara, Y., & Feldman, M. W. (2023). Cultural niche construction with application to fertility control: A model for education and social transmission of contraceptive use. Theoretical Population Biology, 153, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tpb.2023.06.001

The evolution of a cultural trait may be affected by niche construction, or changes in the selective environment of that trait due to the inheritance of other cultural traits that make up a cultural background. This study investigates the evolution o... Read More about Cultural niche construction with application to fertility control: A model for education and social transmission of contraceptive use.

Does Group Contact Shape Styles of Pictorial Representation? A Case Study of Australian Rock Art (2022)
Journal Article
Granito, C., Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Scott-Phillips, T. (2022). Does Group Contact Shape Styles of Pictorial Representation? A Case Study of Australian Rock Art. Human Nature, 33(3), 237-260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-022-09430-2

Image-making is a nearly universal human behavior, yet the visual strategies and conventions to represent things in pictures vary greatly over time and space. In particular, pictorial styles can differ in their degree of figurativeness, varying from... Read More about Does Group Contact Shape Styles of Pictorial Representation? A Case Study of Australian Rock Art.

The role of population size in folk tune complexity (2022)
Journal Article
Street, S., Eerola, T., & Kendal, J. (2022). The role of population size in folk tune complexity. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9, Article 152. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01139-y

Demography, particularly population size, plays a key role in cultural complexity. However, the relationship between population size and complexity appears to vary across domains: while studies of technology typically find a positive correlation, the... Read More about The role of population size in folk tune complexity.

Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game (2021)
Journal Article
Watson, R., Morgan, T. J., Kendal, R. L., Van de Vyver, J., & Kendal, J. (2021). Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game. Games, 12(4), Article 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/g12040089

Human cooperation, occurring without reciprocation and between unrelated individuals in large populations, represents an evolutionary puzzle. One potential explanation is that cooperative behaviour may be transmitted between individuals via social le... Read More about Social learning strategies and cooperative behaviour: Evidence of payoff bias, but not prestige or conformity, in a social dilemma game.

Unknotting the interactive effects of learning processes on cultural evolutionary dynamics (2019)
Journal Article
Scanlon, L., Lobb, A., Tehrani, J. J., & Kendal, J. R. (2019). Unknotting the interactive effects of learning processes on cultural evolutionary dynamics. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 1, Article e17. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.17

Forms of non-random copying error provide sources of inherited variation yet their effects on cultural evolutionary dynamics are poorly understood. Focusing on variation in granny and reef knot forms, we present a mathematical model that specifies ho... Read More about Unknotting the interactive effects of learning processes on cultural evolutionary dynamics.

Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact (2019)
Journal Article
Granito, C., Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Scott-Phillips, T. (2019). Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 1, Article e8. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.8

Pictorial representation is a key human behaviour. Cultures around the world have made images to convey information about living kinds, objects and ideas for at least 75,000 years, in forms as diverse as cave paintings, religious icons and emojis. Ho... Read More about Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact.

The Effects of Prestige on Collective Performance and Information Flow in a Strictly Hierarchical Institution (2019)
Journal Article
Offord, M., Gill, R., & Kendal, J. (2019). The Effects of Prestige on Collective Performance and Information Flow in a Strictly Hierarchical Institution. Palgrave communications, 5, Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0211-8

Institutions such as the military aim to respond efficiently to complex logistical challenges using a strictly hierarchical structure, where leaders are assigned a rank by senior colleagues and team members are trained to obey leader commands. Anthro... Read More about The Effects of Prestige on Collective Performance and Information Flow in a Strictly Hierarchical Institution.

Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktales (2017)
Journal Article
Acerbi, A., Kendal, J., & Tehrani, J. (2017). Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktales. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(4), 474-480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.03.005

We investigate the relationship between cultural complexity and population size in a non-technological cultural domain for which we have suitable quantitative records: folktales. We define three levels of complexity for folk narratives: the number of... Read More about Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktales.

Temporal Relationships Between Individualism–Collectivism and the Economy in Soviet Russia: A Word Frequency Analysis Using the Google Ngram Corpus (2016)
Journal Article
Skrebyte, A., Garnett, P., & Kendal, J. (2016). Temporal Relationships Between Individualism–Collectivism and the Economy in Soviet Russia: A Word Frequency Analysis Using the Google Ngram Corpus. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 47(9), 1217-1235. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022116659540

Collectivism and individualism are commonly used to delineate societies that differ in their cultural values and patterns of social behavior, prioritizing the relative importance of the group and the individual, respectively. Collectivist and individ... Read More about Temporal Relationships Between Individualism–Collectivism and the Economy in Soviet Russia: A Word Frequency Analysis Using the Google Ngram Corpus.