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Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture.

ABSTRACT: The remarkable ecological and demographic success of humanity is largely attributed to our capacity for cumulative culture, with knowledge and technology accumulating over time, yet the social and cognitive capabilities that have enabled cumulative culture remain unclear. In a comparative study of sequential problem solving, we provided groups of capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, and children with an experimental puzzlebox that could be solved in three stages to retrieve rewards of increasing desirability. The success of the children, but not of the chimpanzees or capuchins, in reaching higher-level solutions was strongly associated with a package of sociocognitive processes-including teaching through verbal instruction, imitation, and prosociality-that were observed only in the children and covaried with performance.

SUBMITTER: Dean LG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4676561 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture.

Dean L G LG Kendal R L RL Schapiro S J SJ Thierry B B Laland K N KN

Science (New York, N.Y.) 20120301 6072

The remarkable ecological and demographic success of humanity is largely attributed to our capacity for cumulative culture, with knowledge and technology accumulating over time, yet the social and cognitive capabilities that have enabled cumulative culture remain unclear. In a comparative study of sequential problem solving, we provided groups of capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, and children with an experimental puzzlebox that could be solved in three stages to retrieve rewards of increasing desir ...[more]

PMID: 22383851

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Project description:Misinformation on social media poses a serious threat to democracy, sociopolitical stability, and mental health. Thus, it is crucial to investigate the nature of cognitive mechanisms and personality traits that contribute to the assessment of news items' veracity, failures in the discernment of their truthfulness, and behavioral engagement with the news, especially if one wants to devise any intervention to stop the spread of misinformation in social media. The current research aimed to develop and test a 4-fold taxonomy classifying people into four distinct phenotypes of susceptibility to (mis)information. In doing so, it aimed to establish differences in cognitive and psychological profiles between these phenotypes. The investigated cognitive processes included sensitivity to feedback, belief updating, and cognitive judgment bias. Psychological traits of interest included the Big Five model, grandiose narcissism, anxiety, and dispositional optimism. The participants completed online surveys that consisted of a new scale designed to classify people into one of four phenotypes of susceptibility to (mis)information, advanced cognitive tests, and reliable psychological instruments. The four identified phenotypes, Doubters, Knowers, Duffers, and Consumers, showed that believing in misinformation does not imply denying the truth. In contrast, the numerically largest phenotypes encompassed individuals who were either susceptible (Consumers) or resistant (Doubters), in terms of veracity judgment and behavioral engagement, to any news, regardless of its truthfulness. Significantly less frequent were the phenotypes characterized by excellent and poor discernment of the news' truthfulness (the Knowers and the Duffers, respectively). The phenotypes significantly differed in sensitivity to positive and negative feedback, cognitive judgment bias, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, grandiose narcissism, anxiety, and dispositional optimism. The obtained results constitute a basis for a new and holistic approach in understanding susceptibility to (mis)information as a psycho-cognitive phenotype.

Dataset Information

Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture.

Publications

Identification of the social and cognitive processes underlying human cumulative culture.

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