Subsistence styles shape human social learning strategies

Abstract

Social learning is a fundamental element of human cognition. Learning from others facilitates the transmission of information that helps individuals and groups rapidly adjust to new environments and underlies adaptive cultural evolution^1–6. While basic human propensities for social learning are traditionally assumed to be species-universal^1,7, recent empirical studies show that they vary between individuals and populations^8–13. Yet the causes of this variation remain poorly understood⁹. Here we show that interdependence in everyday social and economic activities can strongly amplify social learning. Using an experimental decision-making task, we examine individual versus social learning in three recently diverged populations of a single-ethnicity group, whose subsistence styles require varying degrees of interdependence. Interdependent pastoralists and urban dwellers have markedly higher propensities for social learning than independent horticulturalists, who predominantly rely on individual payoff information. These results indicate that everyday social and economic practices can mould human social learning strategies and they highlight the flexibility of human cognition to change with local ecology. Our study further suggests that shifts in subsistence styles—which can occur when humans inhabit new habitats or cultural niches²—can alter reliance on social learning and may therefore impact the ability of human societies to adapt to novel circumstances.