Social norms are the glue that holds society together, yet our knowledge of them remains
heavily intellectually siloed. This article provides an interdisciplinary review of the emerging …

Imitation and innovation work in tandem to support cultural learning in children and facilitate
our capacity for cumulative culture. Here we propose an integrated theoretical account of …

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 …

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 …

Diverse lines of theoretical and empirical research are converging on the notion that human
evolution has been substantially influenced by the interaction of our cultural and genetic …

Anthropological evidence from diverse societies suggests that prestige-based leadership
may provide a foundation for cooperation in many contexts. Here, inspired by such …

Two studies test the hypothesis that imitative fidelity is influenced by cues to interpret
behavior as instrumental versus conventional. Study 1 (N= 57, 4–5-yr-olds) manipulated non …

Highlights•Studies with children and adults show that prosocial behavior is substantially
influenced by both descriptive and injunctive norms.•Norms facilitate cooperation by shaping …

From an early age, humans exhibit a tendency to identify, adopt, and enforce the norms of
their local communities. Norms are the social rules that mark out what is appropriate …

This study examined the impact of ritual participation on children's in-group affiliation (N= 71,
4–11-year-old children). A novel social group paradigm was used in an afterschool program …