A Acerbi
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 48551 |
|---|---|
| NOME | A Acerbi |
| PRENOMES | A |
| SOBRENOME | Acerbi |
| ASSINATURA | ACERBI A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Brunel University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5827-8003 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 17 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 46 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 17 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2010 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
The cultural ecology of social media
Most research on social media considers them as supports for information transmission, explaining online success (and pathologies) by focusing on consumers’ biases and interests. This article takes a different perspective, applying ideas from an ecological approach to culture. Success online depends both on the intrinsic appeal of content to receivers and on how well content serves producers’ strategic goals within the constraints and affordances…
People believe misinformation is a threat because they assume others are gullible
Alarmist narratives about the flow of misinformation and its negative consequences have gained traction in recent years. If these fears are to some extent warranted, the scientific literature suggests that many of them are exaggerated. Why are people so worried about misinformation? In two pre-registered surveys conducted in the United Kingdom ( N study_1 = 300, N study_2 = 300) and replicated in the United States ( N study_1 = 302, N study_2 = 2…
Self-Interest, prosociality, and the moral cognition of markets
In this paper, we perform a text analysis of Adam Smith's two books, the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations, to better characterize their highly disputed differences in terms of moral cognition. In particular, given that Smith's ideas are still very cited and influential in the current scholarly debate on moral cognition, we are interested in understanding whether a text analysis would unveil a semantic structure that is in line…
Machine culture
Misinformation on Misinformation
Alarmist narratives about online misinformation continue to gain traction despite evidence that its prevalence and impact are overstated. Drawing on research examining the use of big data in social science and reception studies, we identify six misconceptions about misinformation and highlight the conceptual and methodological challenges they raise. The first set of misconceptions concerns the prevalence and circulation of misinformation. First, …
Individual-Based Models of Cultural Evolution
Individual-Based Models of Cultural Evolution shows readers how to create individual-based models of cultural evolution using the programming language R. The field of cultural evolution has emerged in the last few decades as a thriving, interdisciplinary effort to understand cultural change and cultural diversity within an evolutionary framework and using evolutionary tools, concepts, and methods. Given its roots in evolutionary biology, much of …
From Storytelling to Facebook
Cultural evolution researchers use transmission chain experiments to investigate which content is more likely to survive when transmitted from one individual to another. These experiments resemble oral storytelling, wherein individuals need to understand, memorize, and reproduce the content. However, prominent contemporary forms of cultural transmission-think an online sharing-only involve the willingness to transmit the content. Here I present t…
Joseph Henrich
Negativity bias in the spread of voter fraud conspiracy theory tweets during the 2020 US election
During the 2020 US presidential election, conspiracy theories about large-scale voter fraud were widely circulated on social media platforms. Given their scale, persistence, and impact, it is critically important to understand the mechanisms that caused these theories to spread. The aim of this study was to investigate whether retweet frequencies among proponents of voter fraud conspiracy theories on Twitter during the 2020 US election are consis…
Culture without copying or selection
Typical examples of cultural phenomena all exhibit a degree of similarity across time and space at the level of the population. As such, a fundamental question for any science of culture is, what ensures this stability in the first place? Here we focus on the evolutionary and stabilising role of ‘convergent transformation’, in which one item causes the production of another item whose form tends to deviate from the original in a directed, non-ran…
Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age
Cultural evolution of emotional expression in 50 years of song lyrics
Did Einstein Really Say that? Testing Content Versus Context in the Cultural Selection of Quotations
We experimentally investigated the influence of context-based biases, such as prestige and popularity, on the preferences for quotations. Participants were presented with random quotes associated to famous or unknown authors (experiment one), or with random quotes presented as popular, i.e. chosen by many previous participants, or unpopular (experiment two). To exclude effects related to the content of the quotations, all participants were subseq…
Cultural complexity and demography
Biases in cultural transmission shape the turnover of popular traits
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…
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…
Misinformation on Misinformation
Alarmist narratives about online misinformation continue to gain traction despite evidence that its prevalence and impact are overstated. Drawing on research examining the use of big data in social science and reception studies, we identify six misconceptions about misinformation and highlight the conceptual and methodological challenges they raise. The first set of misconceptions concerns the prevalence and circulation of misinformation. First, …
Cultural evolution of emotional expression in 50 years of song lyrics
People believe misinformation is a threat because they assume others are gullible
Alarmist narratives about the flow of misinformation and its negative consequences have gained traction in recent years. If these fears are to some extent warranted, the scientific literature suggests that many of them are exaggerated. Why are people so worried about misinformation? In two pre-registered surveys conducted in the United Kingdom ( N study_1 = 300, N study_2 = 300) and replicated in the United States ( N study_1 = 302, N study_2 = 2…
Machine culture
Culture without copying or selection
Typical examples of cultural phenomena all exhibit a degree of similarity across time and space at the level of the population. As such, a fundamental question for any science of culture is, what ensures this stability in the first place? Here we focus on the evolutionary and stabilising role of ‘convergent transformation’, in which one item causes the production of another item whose form tends to deviate from the original in a directed, non-ran…
Did Einstein Really Say that? Testing Content Versus Context in the Cultural Selection of Quotations
We experimentally investigated the influence of context-based biases, such as prestige and popularity, on the preferences for quotations. Participants were presented with random quotes associated to famous or unknown authors (experiment one), or with random quotes presented as popular, i.e. chosen by many previous participants, or unpopular (experiment two). To exclude effects related to the content of the quotations, all participants were subseq…
From Storytelling to Facebook
Cultural evolution researchers use transmission chain experiments to investigate which content is more likely to survive when transmitted from one individual to another. These experiments resemble oral storytelling, wherein individuals need to understand, memorize, and reproduce the content. However, prominent contemporary forms of cultural transmission-think an online sharing-only involve the willingness to transmit the content. Here I present t…
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…
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…
Biases in cultural transmission shape the turnover of popular traits
Cultural complexity and demography
Did Einstein Really Say that? Testing Content Versus Context in the Cultural Selection of Quotations
We experimentally investigated the influence of context-based biases, such as prestige and popularity, on the preferences for quotations. Participants were presented with random quotes associated to famous or unknown authors (experiment one), or with random quotes presented as popular, i.e. chosen by many previous participants, or unpopular (experiment two). To exclude effects related to the content of the quotations, all participants were subseq…
Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age
Cultural evolution of emotional expression in 50 years of song lyrics
Joseph Henrich
Negativity bias in the spread of voter fraud conspiracy theory tweets during the 2020 US election
During the 2020 US presidential election, conspiracy theories about large-scale voter fraud were widely circulated on social media platforms. Given their scale, persistence, and impact, it is critically important to understand the mechanisms that caused these theories to spread. The aim of this study was to investigate whether retweet frequencies among proponents of voter fraud conspiracy theories on Twitter during the 2020 US election are consis…
Culture without copying or selection
Typical examples of cultural phenomena all exhibit a degree of similarity across time and space at the level of the population. As such, a fundamental question for any science of culture is, what ensures this stability in the first place? Here we focus on the evolutionary and stabilising role of ‘convergent transformation’, in which one item causes the production of another item whose form tends to deviate from the original in a directed, non-ran…
Individual-Based Models of Cultural Evolution
Individual-Based Models of Cultural Evolution shows readers how to create individual-based models of cultural evolution using the programming language R. The field of cultural evolution has emerged in the last few decades as a thriving, interdisciplinary effort to understand cultural change and cultural diversity within an evolutionary framework and using evolutionary tools, concepts, and methods. Given its roots in evolutionary biology, much of …
From Storytelling to Facebook
Cultural evolution researchers use transmission chain experiments to investigate which content is more likely to survive when transmitted from one individual to another. These experiments resemble oral storytelling, wherein individuals need to understand, memorize, and reproduce the content. However, prominent contemporary forms of cultural transmission-think an online sharing-only involve the willingness to transmit the content. Here I present t…
People believe misinformation is a threat because they assume others are gullible
Alarmist narratives about the flow of misinformation and its negative consequences have gained traction in recent years. If these fears are to some extent warranted, the scientific literature suggests that many of them are exaggerated. Why are people so worried about misinformation? In two pre-registered surveys conducted in the United Kingdom ( N study_1 = 300, N study_2 = 300) and replicated in the United States ( N study_1 = 302, N study_2 = 2…
Self-Interest, prosociality, and the moral cognition of markets
In this paper, we perform a text analysis of Adam Smith's two books, the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations, to better characterize their highly disputed differences in terms of moral cognition. In particular, given that Smith's ideas are still very cited and influential in the current scholarly debate on moral cognition, we are interested in understanding whether a text analysis would unveil a semantic structure that is in line…
Machine culture
Misinformation on Misinformation
Alarmist narratives about online misinformation continue to gain traction despite evidence that its prevalence and impact are overstated. Drawing on research examining the use of big data in social science and reception studies, we identify six misconceptions about misinformation and highlight the conceptual and methodological challenges they raise. The first set of misconceptions concerns the prevalence and circulation of misinformation. First, …
The cultural ecology of social media
Most research on social media considers them as supports for information transmission, explaining online success (and pathologies) by focusing on consumers’ biases and interests. This article takes a different perspective, applying ideas from an ecological approach to culture. Success online depends both on the intrinsic appeal of content to receivers and on how well content serves producers’ strategic goals within the constraints and affordances…
Computer Science (13 obras) · Psychology (11 obras) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (10 obras) · Language and cultural evolution (9 obras) · Social Psychology (8 obras) · Cultural transmission in animals (6 obras) · Political science (6 obras) · Sociology (6 obras) · Artificial Intelligence (5 obras) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (5 obras)