The influence of goal demotion on children's reproduction of ritual behavior

Rituals are a ubiquitous feature of human behavior, yet we know little about the cognitive mechanisms that enable children to recognize them and respond accordingly. In this study, 3 to 6year old children living in Bushman communities in South Africa were shown a sequence of causally irrelevant acti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution and human behavior 2018-05, Vol.39 (3), p.343-348
Main Authors: Nielsen, Mark, Tomaselli, Keyan, Kapitány, Rohan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Causal opacity
Goal demotion
Over-imitation
Ritual
Social learning, cultural transmission
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Summary:Rituals are a ubiquitous feature of human behavior, yet we know little about the cognitive mechanisms that enable children to recognize them and respond accordingly. In this study, 3 to 6year old children living in Bushman communities in South Africa were shown a sequence of causally irrelevant actions that differed in the extent to which goal demotion was a feature. The children consistently replicated the causally irrelevant actions but when such actions were also fully goal demoted they were reproduced at significantly higher rates. These findings highlight how causal opacity and goal demotion work in tandem to demarcate actions as being ritualistic, and specifically, how goal demotion uniquely influences the reproduction of ritualistic actions.
ISSN:1090-5138
1879-0607
DOI:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.02.006