Magnus Enquist
Biographic Data
| ID | 197111 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Magnus Enquist |
| GIVEN NAMES | Magnus |
| FAMILY NAME | Enquist |
| SIGNATURE | ENQUIST M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stockholm University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0198-1288 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 49 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A joint future for cultural evolution and developmental psychology
Developmental psychology and cultural evolution are concerned with the same research questions but rarely interact. Collaboration between these fields could lead to substantial progress. Developmental psychology and related fields such as educational science and linguistics explore how behavior and cognition develop through combinations of social and individual experiences and efforts. Human developmental processes display remarkable plasticity, …
A-learning
An empirical study of cultural evolution
We have carried out an empirical study of long-term change in European cookery to test if the development of this cultural phenomenon matches a general hypothesis about cultural evolution: that human cultural change is characterized by cumulativity. Data from seven cookery books, evenly spaced across time, the oldest one written in medieval times (~1200) and the most recent one dating from late modernity (1999), were compared. Ten recipes from ea…
Old and Young Individuals' Role in Cultural Change
We explore the impact of age on cultural change through simulations of cultural evolution. Our simulations show that common observations about the relationship between old and young naturally emerge from repeated cultural learning. In particular, young individuals are more open to learn than older individuals, they are less effective as cultural models, and they possess less cultural traits. We also show that, being more open to learning, young i…
Parental influences on sexual preferences
We investigated whether a sexual preference for smoking can be related to past experiences of parental smoking during childhood, as predicted by the theory of sexual imprinting, but also by sexual conditioning theory. In a sample of over 4000 respondents to five Internet surveys on sexual preferences, we found that parental smoking correlates with increased attraction to smoking in self-reported hetero- and homosexual males. Maternal smoking was …
The Sometimes Evitable Route to Conservatism and Persuasiveness
In Ghirlanda et al. (2006) we presented a paradox.We argued that, if culture can influence people's openness to new information, then cultural evolution is likely to foster conservative individuals who are reluctant to acquire new culture.We also argued that cultural evolution would promote people's ability to persuade others.We demonstrated these predictions in a simple model in which cultural evolution created conservative and persuasive indivi…
Critical points in current theory of conformist social learning
Existing mathematical models suggest that gene-culture coevolution favours a conformist bias in social learning, that is, a psychological mechanism to preferentially acquire the most common cultural variants. Here we show that this conclusion relies on specific assumptions that seem unrealistic, such as that all cultural variants are known to every individual. We present two models that remove these assumptions, showing that: 1) the rate of cultu…
Critical Social Learning
Alan Rogers (1988) presented a game theory model of the evolution of social learning, yielding the paradoxical conclusion that social learning does not increase the fitness of a population. We expand on this model, allowing for imperfections in individual and social learning as well as incorporating a "critical social learning" strategy that tries to solve an adaptive problem first by social learning, and then by individual learning if socially a…
Cultural Evolution Develops Its Own Rules
In the human sciences, cultural evolution is often viewed as an autonomous process essentially free of genetic influence. A question that follows is, If culture is not influenced by genes, can it take any path? Employing a simple mathematical model of cultural transmission in which individuals may copy each others traits, it can be shown that cultural evolution favors individuals who are weakly influenced by others and able to influence others. T…
Chickens prefer beautiful humans
Critical Social Learning
Alan Rogers (1988) presented a game theory model of the evolution of social learning, yielding the paradoxical conclusion that social learning does not increase the fitness of a population. We expand on this model, allowing for imperfections in individual and social learning as well as incorporating a "critical social learning" strategy that tries to solve an adaptive problem first by social learning, and then by individual learning if socially a…
Critical points in current theory of conformist social learning
Existing mathematical models suggest that gene-culture coevolution favours a conformist bias in social learning, that is, a psychological mechanism to preferentially acquire the most common cultural variants. Here we show that this conclusion relies on specific assumptions that seem unrealistic, such as that all cultural variants are known to every individual. We present two models that remove these assumptions, showing that: 1) the rate of cultu…
Cultural Evolution Develops Its Own Rules
In the human sciences, cultural evolution is often viewed as an autonomous process essentially free of genetic influence. A question that follows is, If culture is not influenced by genes, can it take any path? Employing a simple mathematical model of cultural transmission in which individuals may copy each others traits, it can be shown that cultural evolution favors individuals who are weakly influenced by others and able to influence others. T…
Parental influences on sexual preferences
We investigated whether a sexual preference for smoking can be related to past experiences of parental smoking during childhood, as predicted by the theory of sexual imprinting, but also by sexual conditioning theory. In a sample of over 4000 respondents to five Internet surveys on sexual preferences, we found that parental smoking correlates with increased attraction to smoking in self-reported hetero- and homosexual males. Maternal smoking was …
Chickens prefer beautiful humans
Chickens prefer beautiful humans
Cultural Evolution Develops Its Own Rules
In the human sciences, cultural evolution is often viewed as an autonomous process essentially free of genetic influence. A question that follows is, If culture is not influenced by genes, can it take any path? Employing a simple mathematical model of cultural transmission in which individuals may copy each others traits, it can be shown that cultural evolution favors individuals who are weakly influenced by others and able to influence others. T…
Critical points in current theory of conformist social learning
Existing mathematical models suggest that gene-culture coevolution favours a conformist bias in social learning, that is, a psychological mechanism to preferentially acquire the most common cultural variants. Here we show that this conclusion relies on specific assumptions that seem unrealistic, such as that all cultural variants are known to every individual. We present two models that remove these assumptions, showing that: 1) the rate of cultu…
Critical Social Learning
Alan Rogers (1988) presented a game theory model of the evolution of social learning, yielding the paradoxical conclusion that social learning does not increase the fitness of a population. We expand on this model, allowing for imperfections in individual and social learning as well as incorporating a "critical social learning" strategy that tries to solve an adaptive problem first by social learning, and then by individual learning if socially a…
The Sometimes Evitable Route to Conservatism and Persuasiveness
In Ghirlanda et al. (2006) we presented a paradox.We argued that, if culture can influence people's openness to new information, then cultural evolution is likely to foster conservative individuals who are reluctant to acquire new culture.We also argued that cultural evolution would promote people's ability to persuade others.We demonstrated these predictions in a simple model in which cultural evolution created conservative and persuasive indivi…
Parental influences on sexual preferences
We investigated whether a sexual preference for smoking can be related to past experiences of parental smoking during childhood, as predicted by the theory of sexual imprinting, but also by sexual conditioning theory. In a sample of over 4000 respondents to five Internet surveys on sexual preferences, we found that parental smoking correlates with increased attraction to smoking in self-reported hetero- and homosexual males. Maternal smoking was …
Old and Young Individuals' Role in Cultural Change
We explore the impact of age on cultural change through simulations of cultural evolution. Our simulations show that common observations about the relationship between old and young naturally emerge from repeated cultural learning. In particular, young individuals are more open to learn than older individuals, they are less effective as cultural models, and they possess less cultural traits. We also show that, being more open to learning, young i…
An empirical study of cultural evolution
We have carried out an empirical study of long-term change in European cookery to test if the development of this cultural phenomenon matches a general hypothesis about cultural evolution: that human cultural change is characterized by cumulativity. Data from seven cookery books, evenly spaced across time, the oldest one written in medieval times (~1200) and the most recent one dating from late modernity (1999), were compared. Ten recipes from ea…
A-learning
A joint future for cultural evolution and developmental psychology
Developmental psychology and cultural evolution are concerned with the same research questions but rarely interact. Collaboration between these fields could lead to substantial progress. Developmental psychology and related fields such as educational science and linguistics explore how behavior and cognition develop through combinations of social and individual experiences and efforts. Human developmental processes display remarkable plasticity, …
Psychology (8 works) · Biology (6 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (6 works) · Language and cultural evolution (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (3 works)