Specialized hybrid learners resolve Rogers' paradox about the adaptive value of social learning

Abstract

Culture is considered an evolutionary adaptation that enhances reproductive fitness. A common explanation is that social learning, the learning mechanism underlying cultural transmission, enhances mean fitness by avoiding the costs of individual learning. This explanation was famously contradicted by Rogers (1988), who used a simple mathematical model to show that cheap social learning can invade a population without raising its mean fitness. He concluded that some crucial factor remained unaccounted for, which would reverse this surprising result. Here we extend this model to include a more complex environment and limited resources, where individuals cannot reliably learn everything about the environment on their own. Under such conditions, cheap social learning evolves and enhances mean fitness, via hybrid learners capable of specializing their individual learning. We then show that while spatial or social constraints hinder the evolution of hybrid learners, a novel social learning strategy, complementary copying, can mitigate these effects.

Keywords: Agent-based simulation; Evolution; Invasion analysis; Rogers' paradox; Social learning.