Cultural Transmission

Cultural transmission is the transference of information (beliefs, behaviors, and history) from one individual or group of people to another. There are three types of cultural transmission. Vertical transmission occurs between parents and their children. Horizontal transmission happens when people within the same generation pass on cultural information to each other. Oblique transmission occurs between generations of people who are not related. Cultural transmission can happen in a variety of settings whether or not the act of transferring culture is the goal. The transmission of religion, smoking, punishment, and social information through gossip are discussed here.

Keywords Cultural Transmission; Genetics; Genetic Transmission; Heritability; Horizontal Transmission; Intergenerational; Intra-Generational; Oblique Transmission; Vertical Transmission

Cultural Transmission

Overview

Culture is all around us. It is the reason football fans are so hostile toward each other. It has caused war between religious sects, and it is what determines decisions adults make about their children’s education. Culture is passed from generation to generation and from teacher to student. Bigotry, phobias, habits, and other socially created phenomena can be traced from parent to child, from politicians to the masses, and from stranger to stranger. Everything one person does influences other people. The result is a phenomenon known as cultural transmission.

Vertical, Horizontal & Oblique Transmission

There are different types of transmission based on the teacher/student dynamic. According to Acerbi & Parisi (2006), vertical transmission is what most people experience within their families. Vertical transmission occurs directly from parents to their children. Horizontal transmission is common as well, especially among young people as it occurs from people within the same generation, which is most often peers. A third type of cultural transmission is more subtle. Oblique transmission passes information between people in one generation to those of another when the individuals are not related, like in church services (pastor to congregation), with political officials (politician to constituency), or in educational settings (teacher to student, principal to teacher).

Nature vs. Nurture

To fully understand cultural transmission, it is important to note the dynamic of evolution. While genetics plays a biological role in evolving species, culture plays an environmental or social role. The difference is commonly known as 'nature versus nurture.' Hair color is genetic, whereas the preference for a specific color is a learned behavior. Diabetes is often inherited, whereas the information to prevent or control it is learned. Culture offers options (in most cases), whereas genetic makeup does not. The transmission of an idea (like the positive effects of a healthy breakfast) only occurs when the behavior of one person (the teacher) is modeled by another (the learner).

For example, Dad's daily preparation of a good breakfast shows his children that breakfast is important. As such, when it is Father's Day, Dad receives breakfast in bed as a gift from those who model his behavior.

A learner does not copy the behavior of its teacher exactly but the learner introduces some random changes that will make its behavior similar but not identical to the teacher's behavior. The changes that are introduced by learners tend to make their behavior less effective than their teachers' behavior but in some rare cases they lead to behavior that is better than the teachers' behavior (Acerbi & Parisi, 2006, par. 3.3).

Continuing the breakfast example, it needs to be considered that both Mom and Dad have different experiences in the kitchen. Because of those differences, the same breakfast of sunny side-up eggs, bacon, and toast may be completely different or only slightly so based on what each cook brings with him to the kitchen. Perhaps Mom was forced to eat undercooked bacon as a child and only makes it extra crispy as an adult. Similarly, Dad may use only real butter when frying eggs because that is all that was in his house as a child. Having grown used to the taste, margarine may not work as a substitute for him.

According to Ghirlanda, Enquist & Nakamaru (2006), the teacher is generally influential while the learner is influenced (p. 1027). Returning to the breakfast scenario will show that it is possible that Dad's mother taught him to cook eggs by using real butter. Enjoying the taste of his mother's eggs influenced Dad to always want his eggs that way. In contrast, perhaps Mom's grandmother always prepared undercooked bacon. Even as a little girl, Mom could not be influenced by Grandma's preference because it was distasteful, and so she learned to overcook bacon. In any event, the bacon and eggs get cooked, and a cultural transmission of food occurs.

Further Insights

Religion

When considering teachers who are influential and learners who are influenced, religion is a prominent part of culture that transcends history. As a tradition, families go to church regularly (or perhaps just for weddings and funerals) and much regard is given to the pastor, the church, and the action of attending services. More globally, countries battle over the right to claim the stronger religion, and in the midst of those battles, millions of people perish because of the religious affiliation they preserve and defend. In Great Britain, the phenomenon of religious preservation is declining. Utilizing data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), Crocket & Voas (2006) studied the religious affiliation of families in Britain to determine a cause for the religious decline in the country.

As baptism is such a traditional act of religion, Crocket & Voas began there. "In the mid-1930s virtually everyone born in England to parents of Christian heritage was baptized; by the end of the century the Church of England christened only one infant in five" (Voas 2003, as cited in Crocket & Voas, 2006, p. 567). The researchers identify three possible causes for such a decline. The first is a cohort effect. This involves specific groups of people that are of similar age. The second effect is related to a period of time, during the depression, for example (p. 567). The third cause is known as an age effect. Crocket & Voas explain: "It is commonly assumed that people become more religious as they age, but if the reverse were true, age effects would lead to population-level religious decline in an aging society" (p. 568).

Taking into account these possible causes, Crocket & Voas (2006) compared the religious characteristics of the children identified in the BHPS to the religious characteristics of their parents; mean birth years were 1977 for the children and 1949 for the parents, respectively (p. 577). While many of the children did maintain some level of religiosity, almost half did not . In summarizing their findings, the researchers note the intergenerational nature of this trend:

It is evident from this pattern of transmission that religiosity has almost halved in a single generation (or three 10-year birth cohorts). These young British adults are only a little more than half as religious as their parents, whether the measure used is affiliation (59 percent), [service] attendance (54 percent), or [religious] belief (56 percent) … having parents of different religions/denominations does not result in lower transmission than where both parents belong to the same group … [making it probable that] the social forces that determine religiosity, and have caused decline, operate on children rather than adults (p. 578).

Again, cultural transmission is an environmental factor and is based on choice. If generation after generation in Britain is choosing not to be influenced by religion - or is choosing a different religion than that which their parents chose - the concept of a traditional religious culture will not be transferred to younger populations. The Crocket and Voas (2006) data may be predicting a future that is unfamiliar to most people; however, it may be simply predicting adaptation.

Physical Punishment

As attending church is a behavior that children often model after their parents, so too is what form of discipline children grow to endorse once they become parents. Lunkenheimer, Kittler, Olson & Kleinberg (2006) conducted a study involving 241 mothers and 107 fathers to determine two things regarding parental discipline. First was whether discipline is gender based in that mothers or fathers carry a stronger transmission of physical discipline/punishment if they were physically punished themselves. Previous research has shown that mothers show a positive cultural transmission, while transmission for fathers is weak (p. 509). In other words, mothers repeat the pattern but fathers do not, according to previous studies. The second research question for Lunkenheimer and colleagues was whether marital satisfaction had any correlation to the transmission of physical punishment (p. 509).

For the purpose of their study, physical punishment was defined as the "use of behaviors such as slapping with bare hands, hitting with an object, and throwing, shaking, and/or hair pulling in order to discipline a child" (p. 510). Both mothers and fathers were interviewed separately by a social worker on different occasions for data collection. Parents were asked to respond to hypothetical situations by noting if physical punishment was an appropriate response. In addition, parents were also asked to rate how harsh they thought a punishment was and whether or not they had experienced such a punishment as a child (p. 512).

In summarizing their data, Lunkenheimer et al. identify a link between gender and the cultural transmission of physical punishment:

Mothers who were physically punished by their own mother in childhood were more likely to endorse the use of physical punishment with their children. Fathers were more likely to endorse physical punishment if they had perceived the overall discipline in their childhood home as harsh. Finally, fathers, but not mothers, were significantly less likely to endorse physically punishing their children if their marital satisfaction was high … fathers are less directly influenced by their childhood punishment experiences than are mothers (p. 515).

What is not clear from this data is why girls but not boys experience cultural transfer with regard to physically disciplining their own children. It could be that as children, females are socialized to model the behaviors of their mothers while males are socialized to model the behaviors of a famous baseball player or a Superhero, though neither would be in a position to discipline children. In addition to the data regarding transfer, Lunkenheimer et al. also note that "socioeconomic status impacts both mothers' and fathers' use of physical punishment with their children, despite the fact that the majority of our participants were Caucasian, middle-class members of intact families who were therefore less likely to be subjected to severe stressors such as unemployment and single parenthood" (p. 516).

It could be that a combination of factors, such as the transference of specific discipline techniques, marital status, and socioeconomic status explains the likelihood of physical punishment transmission. For instance, in a home with both parents working, with an income on the cusp of middle to lower class, it is possible that the addition of marital dissatisfaction could cause a mother to model the behavior of her own mother (i.e., physically punishing her children) rather than taking the time and effort required to consciously consider alternative discipline strategies. While Lunkenheimer et al. do not discuss this possibility, it should be considered in the face of further research.

Attraction 101

While disciplining children may not invoke survival of the fittest ideas, choosing the best mate might. Evolution supports the notion that the strongest, the most fit, will endure, reproduce and continue the human species through the next generation. The problem with that notion is that a woman cannot see a man's strength from across the office or from three rows back in the grocery store. She can only see how he looks and from those looks determine whether or not further investigation of his strength (i.e. possible reproductive quality) is in order.

To test how women determine a man's physical attractiveness (appearance), Waynforth (2007) showed pictures of men to female college students between the ages of 19 and 23. The Waynforth study consisted of three parts. The first involved a PowerPoint presentation of over one hundred pictures of men from the neck up. The participants in the study rated the men based on how attractive they thought the men were. The second part of the study occurred two weeks later when each participant was asked to rerate one of the men from the first presentation. In the second presentation, the man was shown coupled with a woman. The third portion of the study included questions about the participant's sexual practices (p. 266).

Waynforth attempted to determine whether or not women copied other women when it came to noting a man's attractiveness. In essence, the study was to show whether or not cultural transmission depended on a copying effect, that a man is more attractive because he is with another woman. Instead of noting a copying effect, however, the participants in the study identified a man as attractive when they also felt that his companion was attractive (p. 269). This proposition weakened when the participants' sexual experiences were taken into consideration.

In fact, both reporting orientation towards short-term sexual relationships and reporting more lifetime sex partners were associated with decreased mate choice copying. The results suggest that sexual experience increases women's confidence in their own attractiveness assessments of men independent of sexual (Waynforth, 2007, p. 268).

In this study, the cultural transmission of who makes an attractive mate is dependent on the women's confidence in their capabilities to find a suitable mate on their own. The more confident, the less likely women were to copy someone else's mating choice. It would be interesting to replicate this study in an actual social setting, such as a campus center or at a party. If women truly depend on copying someone else's choice, it would seem that all the best men would be taken, and thus even less attractive as a mate choice.

Gossip

Social creatures do little if not socialize. What is important is on what the socialization process focuses. Mesoudi, Whiten & Dunbar (2006) conducted a study to determine if certain types of information travel better (more accurately and more frequently) through a chain of people when compared to other types of information. Using volunteer college students in teams of four, the researchers provided each team leader with a written description of four types of information (described below) and asked that the leader provide a verbal description of each situation to the next person in the chain. The second person relayed the information to the third person who relayed it to the fourth person who described it for the researchers.

Information

Description

1) Gossip

Nancy is having an affair with her married college professor. Nancy recently became pregnant with the professor's child. The professor promised Nancy that he would leave his wife, but since Nancy told him she was pregnant, the professor refused to see her. So Nancy told the professor's wife about the affair. The professor's wife was so upset that she left the professor.

2) Social

Nancy enjoys swimming. Nancy was going to the swimming pool but got lost, so she asked an old man waiting at a bus stop for directions. The old man could not give her directions. A bus arrived at the bus stop and the old man asked the driver for directions. The driver gave Nancy directions to the swimming pool, so Nancy was able to go swimming.

3) Individual

One morning, Nancy's alarm clock broke and she overslept. When she woke up, she realized that she was late for an important lecture. She got dressed as quickly as she could, left the house and ran to the lecture theatre. When she got there, the lecture theatre was empty. Nancy had missed the lecture.

4) Physical

The weather in Colorado gets hot and dry in the summer. This removes moisture from the soil and dries out the plants that grow there. The dry vegetation catches fire easily, leading to frequent forest fires. These fires release smoke containing carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. This smoke contributes to global warming, increasing temperatures further (Mesoudi et al., 2006, p. 422-423).

As the researchers predicted, "a significantly larger quantity of the social material was transmitted than of the non-social materials" (p. 415). What Mesoudi and colleagues did not predict, however, is that social creatures want to talk about other social creatures. As there is no social interaction within either the individual or the physical situations provided, they were passed on with less frequency and with less accuracy than the other two descriptions. "There was, however, no significant difference between gossip and social" information transmission (p. 415). It may seem surprising that someone having an affair would not be transmitted more frequently than someone needing directions at a bus stop, but it also may be a relief to know that is the case.

Discourse

Smoking

Most people who have smoked recall the first time they inhaled a cigarette. For some of those people, that initiation was quickly followed by dizziness and a retching stomach. Others, though, continued the habit for many years. The notable tendency for some - but not others - to continue the behavior has been the subject of controversy for decades. Some researchers say the tendency is based on environmental factors (cultural transmission), while others assert that genetics (heritability) is the cause. Maes et al. (2006) studied almost 15,000 sets of twins in Virginia to identify a correlation one way or the other; they began their research noting that much "evidence exists that genetic and environmental factors [together] play a significant role in the initiation of smoking behavior" .

Attempting to gather as much data as possible, questionnaires were sent to the twins in the study as well as to their parents, siblings, spouses, and children. Half of the participants were under fifty years of age at the time of the study, with more females responding than males (Maes et al., p. 797). In sum, men smoke cigarettes more frequently and in greater quantity than women. However, with regard to cultural transmission, men smoke less (in frequency and quantity) by generation than do women (p. 798). In other words, Dad may smoke two packs a day, but statistically, his Dad smoked more than that, and his son will smoke less than that. In contrast, Mom, grandmother, and daughter will generally smoke the same amount with the same frequency.

Interestingly, Maes et al. (2006) report that while "both genetic and environmental factors play a significant role in the liability to smoking initiation," it is heritability (genetics) that correlates more prominently than cultural transmission does (p. 804). To clarify, cultural transmission "accounted for a relatively small proportion of the total variance" (p. 806). This may lead researchers to the concept of addiction and the role genetics may play in the disorder, but this research makes clear the negative correlation of following in a parent's footsteps with regard to smoking.

The association between smoking behavior in parents and their children can be most likely accounted for by their genetic relatedness. The idea of social learning in smoking may apply to siblings or peers but does not appear to apply to children learning by modeling from their parents (p. 807).

Terms & Concepts

Cultural Transmission: The passing of culture (behavior, traits, characteristics) between, within, or among members of different groups.

Genetics: The science of heredity, the variations of genes, and the make-up of organisms.

Genetic Transmission: Traits that are inherited within families through biological processes.

Heritability: A trait or characteristic that is inherited through genes passed from generations.

Horizontal Transmission: The transmission of culture between individuals of the same generation as in peer groups.

Intergenerational: From one generation to another, grandparents to grandchildren, for example.

Intra-generational: Within a generation, such as peer groups.

Oblique Transmission: The transmission of culture from one generation to unrelated individuals of the next generation; baby boomers influencing children that are not their own

Vertical Transmission: The transmission of culture from parents to offspring.

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