Alex Mesoudi, Ph.D. Former Postdoctoral Research Fellow W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics University of British Columbia 227-6356 Agricultural Road Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada Tel: 604-827-3519 Email: am786@cam.ac.uk

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research interests lie in (1) the experimental study of cultural transmission, and (2) evolutionary approaches to human culture.

1. Cultural transmission
(a) Transmission chain studies
I have carried out a series of studies passing written text along chains of participants in the lab, similar to the children's game "Chinese Whispers" or "Broken Telephone". This allows us to test for hypothesised biases in cultural transmission that distort information in a systematic manner, or favour the transmission of some types of information over others. For example, Mesoudi, Whiten & Dunbar (2006) found that information concerning social relationships is transmitted better than equivalent non-social information, consistent with the "Machiavellian intelligence" or "social brain" hypothesis, which argues that primate (including human) intelligence evolved in order to solve complex social problems. Mesoudi & Whiten (2004) found that a hierarchical structure is spontaneously imposed on descriptions of everyday events (e.g. visiting a restaurant) as those descriptions are transmitted along chains of participants, consistent with schema/script theories from cognitive psychology.

(b) Simulating archaeological patterns
My postdoctoral research at the University of Missouri-Columbia with Prof. Michael O'Brien tied the experimental study of cultural transmission to actual archaeological data, in order to elucidate the underlying transmission biases and psychological decision rules that generated different archaeological patterns. We simulated in the lab distinct patterns of Great Basin projectile point variation, finding that cultural transmission/social learning acts to reduce variation, and asocial/individual learning increases variation, consistent with actual projectile point variation observed in Nevada and California respectively (Mesoudi & O'Brien, submitted). Click here to see video clips of a participant taking part in this experiment.

(c) Internet-based experiments on social norms
My current postdoc at the Centre for Applied Ethics at UBC is with the NERD (Norms Evolving in Response to Dilemmas) group, led by Prof. Peter Danielson. This project involves setting up an internet-based experimentation platform for studying the cultural transmission and cultural evolution of social norms, specifically regarding biotechnology issues such as genetically modified food and animal testing. You can participate in the current online experiments here.

2. Cultural evolution
I am also interested in cultural evolution, the notion that human culture (i.e. learned information such as knowledge, beliefs, skills or norms that is passed from individual to individual via social learning) exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties (Mesoudi, Whiten & Laland, 2004). Culture can consequently be studied using similar methods, concepts and tools that biologists use to study biological (gene-based) evolution, as part of a unified science of cultural evolution (Mesoudi, Whiten & Laland, 2006). The cultural transmission experiments outlined above, which concern the small-scale details of cultural micro-evolution, can be seen as part of this unified science.


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PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Mesoudi, A. & Laland, K.N. (2007) Partible paternity and the evolution of human mating systems. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.

Mesoudi, A. & O’'Brien, M.J. (in press) The cultural transmission of Great Basin projectile point technology: Experimental and computer simulations. American Antiquity.

Mesoudi, A. (in press) Using the methods of experimental social psychology to study cultural evolution. Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology.

Mesoudi, A. & Laland, K.N. (in press) Extending the behavioral sciences framework: clarification of methods, predictions and concepts. Commentary on H. Gintis, A framework for the unification of the behavioral sciences, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A. & Dunbar, R. (2006) A bias for social information in human cultural transmission. British Journal of Psychology 97(3), 405-423.

Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A. & Laland, K.N. (2006) Towards a unified science of cultural evolution. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29(4), 329-383 (Target Article).

Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A. & Laland, K.N. (2004). Is human cultural evolution Darwinian? Evidence reviewed from the perspective of The Origin of Species. Evolution, 58(1), 1-11.

Mesoudi, A. & Whiten, A. (2004). The hierarchical transformation of event knowledge in human cultural transmission. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 4(1), 1-24.


Book Chapters

Mesoudi, A. (in press) The experimental study of cultural transmission and its potential for explaining archaeological data. In Cultural Transmission and Archaeology: Issues and Case Studies, edited by M.J. O’Brien. Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology Press.

Mesoudi, A. & O’Brien, M.J. (in press) Placing archaeology within a unified science of cultural evolution. In Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution, edited by S. J. Shennan. London: University College London Press.


Book Reviews

Mesoudi, A. (2007) Book review of Levinson, S.C. and Jaisson, P. Evolution and Culture. Quarterly Review of Biology 82(1), 45.

Mesoudi, A. (2005) Book review of Richerson, P.J. and Boyd, R. Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. Quarterly Review of Biology 80(4), 506-507.


Conference Papers

Mesoudi, A. (in press). The experimental simulation of archaeological patterns: A contribution to a unified science of cultural evolution. Contribution to the XVth Congress of International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, Workshop WS22 - Theoretical and Methodological Issues In Evolutionary Archaeology: Toward an Unified Darwinian Paradigm.

Danielson, P., Mesoudi, A. & Stanev, R. (2006) NERD & Norms: Framework and Experiments. Paper presented at the Philosophy of Science Association Nov 3, 2006.


PhD Thesis

Mesoudi, A. (2005) The transmission and evolution of human culture. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of St Andrews, UK.



LINKS

Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews

Human Evolution at UBC

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