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Personality predicts innovation and social learning in children: implications for cultural evolution

Rawlings, B.; Flynn, E.G.; Kendal, R.L.

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Authors

E.G. Flynn



Abstract

Innovation and social learning are the pillars of cultural evolution, allowing cultural behaviours to cumulatively advance over generations. Yet, little is known about individual differences in the use of social and asocial information. We examined whether personality influenced 7-11-year-old children's (N = 282) propensity to elect to observe others first or independently generate solutions to novel problems. Conscientiousness was associated with electing for no demonstrations, while agreeableness was associated with opting for demonstrations. For children receiving demonstrations, openness to experience consistently predicted deviation from observed methods. Children who opted for no demonstrations were also more likely than those opting for demonstrations to exhibit tool manufacture on an innovation challenge and displayed higher creativity, as measured by an alternate uses task. These results highlight how new cultural traditions emerge, establish and advance by identifying which individuals generate new cultural variants in populations and which are influential in the diffusion of these variants, and help reduce the apparent tension within the ‘ratchet’ of cumulative culture.

Citation

Rawlings, B., Flynn, E., & Kendal, R. (2022). Personality predicts innovation and social learning in children: implications for cultural evolution. Developmental Science, 25(1), Article e13153. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13153

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 26, 2021
Online Publication Date Jul 12, 2021
Publication Date 2022-01
Deposit Date Jul 9, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Developmental Science
Print ISSN 1363-755X
Electronic ISSN 1467-7687
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 25
Issue 1
Article Number e13153
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13153

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Published Journal Article (Early View) (535 Kb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Early View © 2021 The Authors. Developmental Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





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