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 evolution1–6. While basic human propensities for social learning are traditionally assumed to be species-universal1,7, recent empirical studies

show that they vary between individuals and populations8–13. 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

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. Access

through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other

Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online

access to articles $119.00 per year only $9.92 per issue Learn more Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local

taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING

VIEWED BY OTHERS UNPREDICTABLE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL INFORMATION CAN LEAD TO THE EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL LEARNING Article Open access 15 June 2024 THE INFLUENCE OF TASK

DIFFICULTY, SOCIAL TOLERANCE AND MODEL SUCCESS ON SOCIAL LEARNING IN BARBARY MACAQUES Article Open access 20 January 2023 THE EMERGENCE AND ADAPTIVE USE OF PRESTIGE IN AN ONLINE SOCIAL

LEARNING TASK Article Open access 21 July 2020 REFERENCES * Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J. & Henrich, J. The cultural niche: why social learning is essential for human adaptation. _Proc.

Natl Acad. Sci. USA_ 108, 10918–10925 (2011). Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Henrich, J. _The Secret of Our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution,

Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter_ (Princeton Univ. Press, 2016). Book  Google Scholar  * Hoppitt, W. & Laland, K. N. _Social Learning: An Introduction to Mechanisms,

Methods, and Models_ (Princeton Univ. Press, 2013). Book  Google Scholar  * Mesoudi, A. _Cultural Evolution: How Darwinian Theory Can Explain Human Culture and Synthesize the Social

Sciences_ (Univ. Chicago Press, 2011). Book  Google Scholar  * Dean, L. G., Kendal, R. L., Schapiro, S. J., Thierry, B. & Laland, K. N. Identification of the social and cognitive

processes underlying human cumulative culture. _Science_ 335, 1114–1118 (2012). Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Tomasello, M. _The Cultural Origins of Human

Cognition_ (Harvard Univ. Press, 1999). Google Scholar  * Enquist, M., Eriksson, K. & Ghirlanda, S. Critical social learning: a solution to Rogers’s paradox of nonadaptive culture. _Am.

Anthropol._ 109, 727–734 (2007). Article  Google Scholar  * Efferson, C. et al. Learning, productivity, and noise: an experimental study of cultural transmission on the Bolivian Altiplano.

_Evol. Hum. Behav._ 28, 11–17 (2007). Article  Google Scholar  * Mesoudi, A., Chang, L., Dall, S. R. X. & Thornton, A. The evolution of individual and cultural variation in social

learning. _Trends Ecol. Evol._ 31, 215–225 (2016). Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  * Mesoudi, A., Chang, L., Murray, K. & Lu, H. J. Higher frequency of social learning in China than in

the West shows cultural variation in the dynamics of cultural evolution. _Proc. R. Soc. B_ 282, 20142209 (2015). Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Molleman, L., van den

Berg, P. & Weissing, F. J. Consistent individual differences in human social learning strategies. _Nat. Commun._ 5, 3570 (2014). Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  * Toelch, U., Bruce, M.

J., Newson, L., Richerson, P. J. & Reader, S. M. Individual consistency and flexibility in human social information use. _Proc. R. Soc. B_ 281, 20132864 (2014). Article  PubMed  PubMed

Central  Google Scholar  * van den Berg, P., Molleman, L. & Weissing, F. J. Focus on the success of others leads to selfish behavior. _Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA_ 112, 2912–2917 (2015).

Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. Why does culture increase human adaptability? _Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol._ 16, 125–143 (1995). Google

Scholar  * Mesoudi, A. & Whiten, A. The multiple roles of cultural transmission experiments in understanding human cultural evolution. _Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B _ 363, 3489–3501 (2008).

Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Rand, D. G. et al. Social heuristics shape intuitive cooperation. _Nat. Commun._ 5, 3677 (2014). Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  *

Talhelm, T. et al. Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice versus wheat agriculture. _Science_ 344, 603–608 (2014). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  *

Uskul, A. K., Kitayama, S. & Nisbett, R. E. Ecocultural basis of cognition: farmers and fishermen are more holistic than herders. _Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA_ 105, 8552–8556 (2008).

Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Henrich, J. et al. In search of _Homo economicus_: behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. _Am. Econ. Rev._ 91, 73–78

(2001). Article  Google Scholar  * Henrich, J. et al. Costly punishment across human societies. _Science_ 312, 1767–1770 (2006). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  * Tornay, S. in

_Peoples and Cultures of the Ethio-Sudan Borderlands_ (ed. Bender, M. L. ) 137–178 (Michigan State Univ., 1981). Google Scholar  * Yntiso, G. in _Creating and Crossing Boundaries in

Ethiopia: Dynamics of Social Categorization and Differentiation_ (ed. Epple, S. ) 73–91 (Lit Verlag, 2014). Google Scholar  * Glowacki, L. & Wrangham, R. Warfare and reproductive success

in a tribal population. _Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA_ 112, 348–353 (2015). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  * Glowacki, L. et al. Formation of raiding parties for intergroup violence is

mediated by social network structure. _Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA_ 113, 12114–12119 (2016). Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Glowacki, L. & von Rueden, C.

Leadership solves collective action problems in small-scale societies. _Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B_ 370, 20150010 (2015). Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Boyd, R. &

Richerson, P. J. _Culture and The Evolutionary Process_ (Univ. Chicago Press, 1985). Google Scholar  * Efferson, C., Lalive, R., Richerson, P. J., McElreath, R. & Lubell, M. Conformists

and mavericks: the empirics of frequency-dependent cultural transmission. _Evol. Hum. Behav._ 29, 56–64 (2008). Article  Google Scholar  * Heyes, C. Grist and mills: on the cultural origins

of cultural learning. _Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B_ 367, 2181–2191 (2012). Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Derex, M., Beugin, M.-P., Godelle, B. & Raymond, M. Experimental

evidence for the influence of group size on cultural complexity. _Nature_ 503, 389–391 (2013). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  * Derex, M. & Boyd, R. Partial connectivity increases

cultural accumulation within groups. _Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA_ 113, 2982–2987 (2016). Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar  * Grove, M. Population density, mobility, and

cultural transmission. _J. Archaeol. Sci._ 74, 75–84 (2016). Article  Google Scholar  * McElreath, R. et al. Applying evolutionary models to the laboratory study of social learning. _Evol.

Hum. Behav._ 26, 483–508 (2005). Article  Google Scholar  * Arechar, A., Gaechter, S. & Molleman, L. Conducting interactive experiments online.

_SSRN_http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2884409 (2017). Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank the administration of the South Omo Zone and Nyangatom woreda, especially L. Kakuta for

logistical support. We thank P. van den Berg, D. van Dolder, S. Gächter, M. Hoffman, R. McElreath, M. Singh, T. Weber, O. Weisel, K. Zhao and the members of the Max Planck Department for

Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture for discussions and comments. Funding was provided by The Eric M. Mindich Research Fund for the Foundations of Human Behavior and the Mind Brain and

Behavior Interfaculty Initiative at Harvard University. Support to L.G. through the ANR Labex IAST is gratefully acknowledged. L.M. gratefully acknowledges support by the European Research

Council (ERC-Adg 295707) and the Open Research Area grant ASTA ID: 176. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the

manuscript. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, 31015 Toulouse Cedex 6, France Luke Glowacki * Department of Human Evolutionary Biology,

Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA Luke Glowacki * Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA Luke Glowacki * Centre

for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK Lucas Molleman * Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human

Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195, Berlin, Germany Lucas Molleman Authors * Luke Glowacki View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Lucas

Molleman View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS L.G. and L.M. jointly designed the study. L.G. collected the data and L.M.

analysed the data. Both authors wrote the manuscript. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Luke Glowacki or Lucas Molleman. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no

competing interests. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Notes 1 and 2, Supplementary Figures 1–4, Supplementary Tables 1–4, Supplementary References. (PDF 532

kb) RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Glowacki, L., Molleman, L. Subsistence styles shape human social learning strategies. _Nat Hum Behav_

1, 0098 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0098 Download citation * Received: 07 October 2016 * Accepted: 22 March 2017 * Published: 28 April 2017 * DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0098 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not

currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative