A new modulator of cultural transmission: congruence between learning and onward transmission contexts

This study investigated the effects of congruence between two contexts -the one in which we learn variants and the one in which we later transmit them- on cultural transmission.  We hypothesized that when we are placed in a particular context, we will be more likely to produce (and therefore transmit) variants that we learned in that same context. In particular, we tested the effect of a social contextual aspect: the relationship between model and learner. Participants learned two variant methods to solve a puzzle, one from an “expert” (in an expert-to-novice context) and one from a “peer” (in a peer-to-peer context). They were then asked to transmit one variant onward, either to a “novice” (in a new expert-to-novice context) or to another “peer” (in a new peer-to-peer context). We measured whose variant they transmitted onward.