Humans are an ultrasocial species. This sociality, however, cannot be fully explained by the
canonical approaches found in evolutionary biology, psychology, or economics …

While social learning is widespread, indiscriminate copying of others is rarely beneficial.
Theory suggests that individuals should be selective in what, when, and whom they copy, by …

“This is an important book and likely the most thoughtful of the year in the social sciences...
Highly recommended, it is likely to prove one of the most thought-provoking books of the …

The processes underwriting the acquisition of culture remain unclear. How are shared
habits, norms, and expectations learned and maintained with precision and reliability across …

Humans possess an extraordinary capacity for cultural production, from the arts and
language to science and technology. How did the human mind—and the uniquely human …

Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the
wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters …

Learning the value of stimuli and actions from others—social learning—adaptively
contributes to individual survival and plays a key role in cultural evolution. We review …

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of extensive geolocated datasets related to
human movement, enabling scientists to quantitatively study individual and collective …

We develop a cultural evolutionary theory of the origins of prosocial religions and apply it to
resolve two puzzles in human psychology and cultural history:(1) the rise of large-scale …

Human cultural traits—behaviors, ideas, and technologies that can be learned from other
individuals—can exhibit complex patterns of transmission and evolution, and researchers …