Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37706214›Full record

ArticleEvolutionary human sciences2023

Cultural evolution from the producers' standpoint.

Jean-Baptiste André, Nicolas Baumard, Pascal Boyer

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Evolutionary human sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The cultural ecology of social media.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. The Agential View of Misfortune.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jean-Baptiste AndréDépartement d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9069-447X
Nicolas BaumardDépartement d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1439-9150
Pascal BoyerDepartment of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0911-1212

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Standard approaches to cultural evolution focus on the recipients or consumers. This does not take into account the fitness costs incurred in producing the behaviours or artefacts that become cultural, i.e. widespread in a social group. We argue that cultural evolution models should focus on these fitness costs and benefits of cultural production, particularly in the domain of 'symbolic' culture. In this approach, cultural products can be considered as a part of the extended phenotype of producers, which can affect the fitness of recipients in a positive way (through cooperation) but also in a detrimental way (through manipulation and exploitation). Taking the producers' perspective may help explain the specific features of many kinds of cultural products.

Indexed as

cultural evolutionevolutionary psychologyfitness costssocial evolution theorysymbolic culture

Identifiers

PMID37706214
PMCPMC10495820

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.