Outcomes in the cultural arena are due to many factors but are there general rules that can suggest what makes some cultural traits successful and others not? Research in cultural evolution theory distinguishes factors related to social influence …
This study investigates the dissemination of archaeological information on Twitter/X through the lens of cultural evolution. By analysing 132,230 tweets containing the hashtag #archaeology from 2021 to 2023, we examine how content and context-related …
Alarmist narratives about the flow of misinformation and its negative consequences have gained traction in recent years. If these fears are to some extent warranted, the scientific literature suggests that many of them are exaggerated. Why are overly …
The ability of humans to create and disseminate culture is often credited as the single most important factor of our success as a species. In this Perspective, we explore the notion of ‘machine culture’, culture mediated or generated by machines. We …
As the use of large language models (LLMs) grows, it is important to examine whether they exhibit biases in their output. Research in cultural evolution, using transmission chain experiments, demonstrates that humans have biases to attend to, …
During the 2020 US presidential election, conspiracy theories about large-scale voter fraud were widely circulated on social media platforms. Given their scale, persistence, and impact, it is critically important to understand the mechanisms that …
In this paper, we perform a text analysis of Adam Smith’s two books, the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations, to better characterize their highly disputed differences in terms of moral cognition. In particular, given that Smith’s …
The role of nature documentaries in shaping public attitudes and behaviour towards conservation and wildlife issues is unclear. We analysed the emotional content of over two million tweets related to *Our Planet*, a major nature documentary released …
Alarmist narratives about online misinformation continue to gain traction despite evidence that its prevalence and impact are overstated. Drawing on research questioning the use of big data in social science and reception studies, we identify six …
The method of exclusion identifies patterns of distributions of behaviours and/or artefact forms among different groups, where these patterns are deemed unlikely to arise from purely genetic and/or ecological factors. The presence of such patterns is …