Stefano Ghirlanda
Biographic Data
| ID | 197112 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stefano Ghirlanda |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stefano |
| FAMILY NAME | Ghirlanda |
| SIGNATURE | GHIRLANDA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bologna |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7270-9612 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| 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
Trends in First Names Foreshadowed Hillary Clinton’s Electoral Defeat
I examine trends in the popularity of first names around the years of USA presidential elections, showing that the names 'Hillary' and 'Hilary' decreased abruptly by more than 90% in popularity following the 1992 election of Hillary Clinton's husband Bill. I show that this outcome is unique to the 1992 election, and argue that it may evidence a "dislike" for Hillary Clinton's public image among both Democratic and Republican voters, which may hav…
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 …
Equilibria of Culture Contact Derived from In-Group and Out-Group Attitudes
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…
Modeling society with statistical mechanics
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 …
Modeling society with statistical mechanics
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…
Modeling society with statistical mechanics
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…
Equilibria of Culture Contact Derived from In-Group and Out-Group Attitudes
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…
Trends in First Names Foreshadowed Hillary Clinton’s Electoral Defeat
I examine trends in the popularity of first names around the years of USA presidential elections, showing that the names 'Hillary' and 'Hilary' decreased abruptly by more than 90% in popularity following the 1992 election of Hillary Clinton's husband Bill. I show that this outcome is unique to the 1992 election, and argue that it may evidence a "dislike" for Hillary Clinton's public image among both Democratic and Republican voters, which may hav…
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 (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (6 works) · Biology (5 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Language and cultural evolution (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works)