Cultural Dynamics Lab
Summary
The Cultural Dynamics Lab focuses on modelling the evolution of human culture. We study how culture is transmitted and how it varies between populations and over time. Our group has diverse interests and conduct research on topics ranging from the cognitive capabilities of large language models to the social transmission of conspiracy beliefs. We specialise in modelling the cultural evolution of religion and mentalising.
Religious systems show variation between groups, are transmitted and modified over generations, and differ in their ability to gain and retain members. In other words, religions exhibit the key characteristics of an evolutionary system.
We build large-scale cross-cultural databases and use models from evolutionary biology to test theories about the functions and effects of religious systems. Examples of our research includes studies on the emergence of religious specialists in hunter-gatherer societies, the co-evolution of human sacrifice and social inequality, and the mechanisms by which Christianity has spread throughout the Pacific
Humans regularly reason about mental states such as beliefs, emotions, intentions, and desires. This capacity, known as mentalising or theory of mind, is foundational to human social learning, empathy, cooperation, and communication.
We use text and language analysis, as well as experiments to study the role that culture plays in mentalising. Examples of our projects include studies showing that the meaning of emotion concepts vary widely across world languages, experiments investigating the cognitive basis of false belief attributions in preschoolers, and ongoing research testing claims about opacity of mind in Pacific languages.
Other Concentration contact
- University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand