Two studies show that larger groups of people are better at maintaining and improving cultural knowledge.
References
Muthukrishna, M., Shulman, B. W., Vasilescu, V. & Henrich, J. Proc. Roy. Soc. B http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2511 (2013).
Derex, M., Beugin, M.-P., Godelle, B. & Raymond, M. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12774 (2013).
Additional information
Read the related News & Views article.
Supplementary Information
Nature Podcast
Researcher Maxime Derex explains why large groups are best at maintaining skills and innovation over generations
Related links
Related links
Related links in Nature Research
Human evolution: Group size determines cultural complexity 2013-Nov-13
Social evolution: The ritual animal 2013-Jan-23
How geography shapes cultural diversity 2012-Jun-11
Human evolution: Cultural roots 2012-Feb-15
Darwin 200: Human nature: the remix 2009-Feb-11
Behavioural Science: Secret signals 2009-Jan-28
Human evolution: Details of being human 2008-Jul-02
Related external links
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yong, E. Bigger groups mean complex cultures. Nature (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2013.14158
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2013.14158
- Springer Nature Limited