Denmark

**Author(s):** Hersh, T; De Gregorio, C; Kwong, A; Whitehead, H; Gero, S; Rendell, L; Muldoon, M; Lewis, R; Soma, M; Anichini, M; de Reus, K; Berry, C; Ravignani, A &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Introduction: Small integer ratio (SIR) categorical rhythms—where intervals separating sounds are distributed around SIRs—dominate human music and some birdsong, and are thought to emerge from or foster cultural transmission of learned vocalizations. Other species with culturally transmitted, socially learned vocalizations should thus also have rhythm categories.
&lt;br&gt;Methods: We looked for categorical rhythms in sperm whale codas, Java sparrow songs, and harbour seal pup calls. All three species learn vocalizations, but only the first two show extensive evidence of culture. We calculated ratios of adjacent sound intervals and quantified whether there were significant distribution peaks at SIRs.
&lt;br&gt;Results: Sperm whale codas and Java sparrow songs exhibit SIR categorical rhythms. As in humans, exact ratio preferences vary by whale cultural group. In Java sparrows, sons mirror the rhythms of their social, but not genetic, father. Harbour seal pup calls show no evidence of categorical rhythms.
&lt;br&gt;Conclusions: These human/animal parallels emphasize that culture can drive rhythmic similarities in communication systems even when underlying sound production anatomies and acoustic environments differ.

Cultural Evolution Society 2022

Does culture spur rhythmic categories in animal communication? Evidence from sperm whales, Java sparrows, and harbour seals

bioacoustics; animal behavior; categorical rhythms; small integer ratios; animal culture; music; comparative approach

Welcome Seabirders! 

Welcome to Virtual World Seabird Conference 3 - vWSC3! Whether you are in your office or lab, at home, in a coffee shop or bar poaching some wifi, or at a remote field site or research vessel – we are very excited to welcome you to the third ever World Seabird Conference. 

We would like to thank ALL of you for being so patient as WSC3 was scheduled, postponed, rescheduled, revised to virtual, and scheduled again. Throughout all those iterations there was one message that remained perfectly clear – seabirders were eager to meet and share their science. If we could not meet in person then virtual it would have to be, but a 3rd WSC was something everyone wanted. That support and commitment helped the WSU Board of Directors and Member Societies sort through all of the challenges they faced to plan and hold this conference. 

The list of those that need to be thanked is long and, while we plan on recognizing many during the live closing plenary, it is important to do so here in writing as well. 

The Australasian Seabird Group was our Local Host for our plan to meet in Hobart, Tasmania. They invested substantial time and effort to find venues and plan events that we unfortunately were not able to visit. Nonetheless we appreciate their work on behalf of WSC3 and encourage all of you to thank them when you see their members in Gathertown or elsewhere during our virtual meeting. Their willingness to host created the initial excitement for WSC3 and without that our vWSC would not have been possible.

We also wish to thank the Science Program Committee, the Virtual Committee, and the Early Career Scientist Committee for their hard work planning the logistics, events, and schedule for vWSC3. These committees also had to deal with changing parameters and short timelines that made what is always a challenging task even more challenging. The Travel Awards Committee also invested time and effort in developing procedures for awarding travel funds that ultimately would not be implemented. 

Our ability to shift from an in-person to a virtual meeting, and to do so in a way that would be financially feasible, was due to the effective efforts of The International Fundraising Committee and to our financial sponsors. The IFC raised funds to support WSC3 and then, through the good relationships they built with sponsors, ensured we could re-envision how those funds could be used to support a virtual conference that would be affordable and high-quality.

We all owe the WSU Board of Directors and the Representatives of the Member Societies a great deal of thanks. They are the ones who manage the WSU and, for the past 18 months, have had to have a series of challenging meetings and conversations, have had to make a series of difficult choices, have had to do all of that while considering the short- and long-term health of WSU and the World Seabird Conferences, and did this while also managing their own challenges at their day jobs. We are grateful for their diligence, patience, foresight, and throughout all of the meetings, their collegiality. Also – a 6-year term is quite a commitment!

There would not be a WSC3 without a successful WSC1 and WSC2. Thanks go to the Pacific Seabird Group for their support of WSC1 in Victoria, Canada, and to the African Seabird Group for their support of WSC2 in Cape Town, South Africa. In each of these endeavors and for our current conference we were fortunate to work with a dependable and trustworthy partner in Podium Conferences. Michelle Smith and Marischal de Armond have become valued members of our team and have not only helped us plan conferences but have assisted and advised the WSU Chairs and Board on issues above and beyond conference planning. 

As we embark on our vWSC3 week we extend to all of you our thanks for showing up, for being patient, and most importantly for the work you do with seabirds. We are all part of a unique, global community that shares an interest, a fascination, and a passion for birds that make a living in our world’s oceans. We have advanced the science, conservation, and management of seabirds as well the ecosystems they inhabit. We are consistently impressed and motivated by the work you do. 

The WSU formed in 2010 because we saw the need for a global organization to address challenges at a global level. Over the past 11 years WSU has grown, adapted, and evolved to become the community that this week is making vWSC3 a reality. Enjoy the week, appreciate and support the friends and colleagues you have made in the community, and if you see us in a virtual hallway please stop and say hello! 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve all of you and the WSU over the past few years,

Nicholas Carlile, Interim Chair, WSU 
Patrick Jodice, 2nd Chair of the WSU 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rCc-s9eu6og" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JOLEP6uTMuc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

3rd World Seabird Conference

Join us for four days of science, networking and virtual engagement with delegates from around the world!

**Author(s):** Hersh, T; De Gregorio, C; Kwong, A; Whitehead, H; Gero, S; Rendell, L; Muldoon, M; Lewis, R; Soma, M; Anichini, M; de Reus, K; Berry, C; Ravignani, A Introduction: Small integer ratio (SIR) categorical rhythms—where intervals separating sounds are distributed around SIRs—dominate human music and some birdsong, and are thought to emerge from or foster cultural transmission of learned vocalizations. Other species with culturally transmitted, socially learned vocalizations should thus also have rhythm categories.
 Methods: We looked for categorical rhythms in sperm whale codas, Java sparrow songs, and harbour seal pup calls. All three species learn vocalizations, but only the first two show extensive evidence of culture. We calculated ratios of adjacent sound intervals and quantified whether there were significant distribution peaks at SIRs.
 Results: Sperm whale codas and Java sparrow songs exhibit SIR categorical rhythms. As in humans, exact ratio preferences vary by whale cultural group. In Java sparrows, sons mirror the rhythms of their social, but not genetic, father. Harbour seal pup calls show no evidence of categorical rhythms.
 Conclusions: These human/animal parallels emphasize that culture can drive rhythmic similarities in communication systems even when underlying sound production anatomies and acoustic environments differ.

technical paper

### Welcome to the fourth Cultural Evolution Society Conference, CES2022! 

As last year, Underline will support the online component of the conference. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is causing a great deal of uncertainty for all of us. Therefore, we seek to offer a hybrid format that will hopefully allow some folks to travel to Aarhus, others to meet up locally or regionally in CES hub-lets, and other yet to participate online. The field of cultural evolution is growing in size and scope; its theories, methods and applications - both academic and applied - are getting ever more robust. Do join us in what promises to be an exciting exchange of ideas and a celebration of our field.

##### ***For SoMe interaction and live tweeting please tag @CulturalEvolSoc and use #CESconf2022***


#### The CES 2022 local organising committee
* Luseadra Joy McKerracher
* Jesper Sørensen 
* Niels Nørkjær Johannsen 
* Benjamin Grant Purzycki 
* Mette Løvschal 
* Felix Riede
* Iza Romanowska 
* Karsten Olsen

Please click on the button bellow if you want to watch the videos

The field of cultural evolution is growing in size and scope; its theories, methods and applications - both academic and applied - are getting ever more robust. Do join us in what promises to be an exciting exchange of ideas and a celebration of our field.

**Author(s):** Theofanopoulou, C. It has been long thought that the kind of social interaction modern humans display should have been a key feature in the evolution of language (Tomasello et al., 2003). At the same time, our increased prosociality has independently been hypothesized to be very similar to the one we witness in domesticated species (e.g., Thomas, 2014). In this talk, I will connect the dots between several studies I have run in the past years around the topic of human self-domestication and its relevance to speech evolution. I will present genomic evidence suggesting that modern humans provide a good case for self-domestication, based on the significant convergence in signs of positive selection found in the genomes of domesticated species and modern humans (Theofanopoulou et al. 2017). I will show evidence supporting that the oxytocin-vasotocin system is a good candidate for the neurobiology underlying the vocal complexity differences we observe in domesticated vs. wild avian species (Tobari, Theofanopoulou et al. 2021), and propose how these findings can shed light on the evolution of human speech. Lastly, I will present modern human specific alleles we identified in the oxytocin and vasotocin receptors, when compared to archaic humans and non-human primates (Theofanopoulou et al. 2022) and will explain how these sites could have impacted the evolution of human prosociality via self-domestication.

Human self-domestication and speech evolution through the lens of the oxytocin and vasotocin gene family

 Swarm Robotics studies collective behaviours of large populations of interacting robots with simple embodied cognition, and is an ideal testbed to study the effect of prosociality on cultural evolution. Building on our previous work, we developed a category game whereby agents collectively discriminate and name regions of an environment that contains food items that are randomly spread around sources. Robots choose their foraging place within “named categories”, thus the category game affects the efficiency of foraging. Agents interact according to two novel features (a) an innate prosociality factor and (b) experience: successful communication between robots reduces their aggression toward each other and increases their chances of interacting again. We observe that when food is spread widely, higher prosociality results in the collection of more items, as collective categories form around the sources. The lexicon created by the robots is a complex cultural artefact that affects foraging efficiency and is subjected to agents’ prosociality. Since foraging efficiency is a factor of survival, our results potentially indicate an evolutionary advantage for prosociality. Higher prosociality would, in turn, enable more complex cultural artefacts to emerge.

Impact of prosociality on culturally evolving foraging habits: a swarm robotics approach

**Author(s):** Nirjhor, M.S.A.; Nakamaru, M. Introduction: Division of labor is based on cooperation among players with various roles on various network structures. It is common in our society but rarely studied from the viewpoint of the evolution of cooperation. We focus on the effects of two possible sanction systems: the defector-sanction system and the 1st role-sanction system, on the evolution of cooperation in the linear division of labor arranged in a unidirectional linear chain. Method: By using the replicator equations of the asymmetric game, we analyze our model; there is a finite number of roles each of which is assigned to one group with cooperators and defectors. A cooperator in an upstream group produces or modifies a product, paying a cost of cooperation, and hands it to a player in a downstream group who obtains a benefit from the product. Costs and benefits are different among groups. If players in all roles cooperate, a final product can be completed. However, if a player in a group chooses defection, the division of labor stops, the final product cannot be completed, and all players in all roles suffer damage. Results & Conclusion: We find that not the benefit but the cost matters to the evolutionary dynamics. We also find that the probability of finding a defector and the initial demography of the groups determine which sanction system promotes cooperation.

Effects of sanction systems on the evolution of cooperation in the linear division of labor with finite roles

**Author(s):** Campenni, M.; Takahashi, T.; Wada, M. Many human populations on the globe have the law system, obliging individuals to conform to a certain norm, violation of which is usually followed by the punishment from the third-party. Using a model of group competition among distinct subpopulations, we will simulate the co-evolution of the law internalized in a population and the cooperative behavior through prisoner’s dilemma (PD) game with third-party punishment. Unlike the standard PD game, third-party punishment in our model takes place only if the subpopulation in question has the internalized law system. Our model also includes the competition among subpopulations, in which those with higher payoff tend to win. We show that whereas the law and cooperative behavior may evolve for certain parameter sets concerning the payoffs of the PD game, the population will lose the law and be occupied by defectors in majority of the cases.

Co-evolution of cooperative behavior, third-party punishment, and law: Simulation study based on prisoner’s dilemma game

**Author(s):** Walldén, C; Gunst, A; Westerlund, M; Santtila, P; Antfolk, J. We tested the hypothesis that anti-immigration tendencies (e.g., discrimination and negative attitudes towards immigration) can partly be the result of intrasexual competition for mates, especially among heterosexual men. That is, the more an immigrant group is perceived as increasing intrasexual competition, the more anti-immigration tendencies will be displayed by natives. We predicted that native men would display more anti-immigration tendencies than women and that immigrant-specific variables (relationship status, ethnicity-specific prejudice concerning sexual behavior) would predict native men’s anti-immigration tendencies. We presented participants with online vignettes presenting a large group of immigrants of reproductive age and of the participant’s own gender entering into the participant’s home county. We manipulated the relationship status and ethnicity of the immigrant groups. After each vignette, participants reported their anti-immigration tendencies towards the described immigrant group. We also measured participants' self-reported mate access, mate value, and intrasexual competition. We recruited 485 Finnish adults between 25 and 44 years and used available data on their home county’s sex-ratio for their age group as a proxy measure for mate access. As expected, men displayed more anti-immigration tendencies than women and men reported more anti-immigration tendencies against immigrants from the Middle East compared to against immigrants from South-East Asia. Contrary to our hypothesis, intrasexual competition did not predict anti-immigration tendencies among men, but among women. We discuss these findings further.

Intrasexual Competition and Anti-Immigration Tendencies

**Author(s):** Schimmelpfennig, R; Ehret, S; Voigt, S; Efferson, C Theoretical and empirical research suggests that human social learning is both frequency- and payoff-dependent. Less evidence exists about the joint effect of both types of social information. We ran a two-staged incentivised online experiment in Kenya (N=1400). First, participants were ranked based on their performance in a Raven Matrices Task. Second, participants were grouped to make decisions in a sequential task in which participants receive a private signal and can observe the decisions of upstream participants. In a 2x2 factorial design, we manipulated whether high-performing participants would make their decisions early or late in the sequence and whether participants are informed about the ordering or not. We find strong evidence for frequency-dependent social learning across all conditions. However, while frequency- and payoff-dependent cues interact to increase the accuracy of decisions, we don’t find any significant interaction effect on social learning. To understand how learning shapes decisions in complex real-world scenarios, research should further investigate the joint effects of social learning biases for decision-making.

Leveraging social influence for the wisdom of the crowd

**Author(s):** Gunst A, Pedersen I, Antfolk J Introduction: Sibling conflicts are frequent in sibling relationships during childhood and adolescence. However, little is known about the dynamics behind sibling conflicts. Based on the evolutionary theory of parental-offspring conflict, we hypothesized that more conflicts would arise between siblings close (vs. further apart) in age, as they compete for the same type of parental investment. We also studied the alternative hypotheses that more conflicts would arise between siblings close in age as they are more similar and closer to each other. Materials and Methods: We analyzed retrospective survey data from 379 parents in Finland who had at least two children and whose oldest child was a minor. We performed multiple regressions with sibling conflict as the dependent variable, age difference as the dependent variable, and sibling similarity and sibling closeness as mediating variables. Results: We present descriptive results and results from the structural regression model. Discussion: We discuss our findings and the limitations of our study.

Parental investment theory, sibling conflicts and age difference between siblings

**Author(s):** Heckelsmiller, C; Lightner, A. D; Quinlan, M. B. People use folk scientific concepts in ethnomedicine when confronting diseases in humans, other animals, and plants, especially when those organisms are part of a human food system. Yet, little is known about how explanatory models (EMs) of animal and plant diseases adapt when subsistence systems change. Traditionally pastoralists, many Maasai communities in East Africa have intensified agricultural production and interactions with Western scientific paradigms. Using participant observation and interviews with 95 members of a Tanzanian Maasai community, we investigate how participants explain illness events for humans, animals, and plants. We found that people often adopt Western scientific interventions, but keep traditional medical explanations which vary between plant and animal cases. Our findings suggest that EM content for plant and animal disease appears to be differentially constrained by 1) cognitive construals (e.g. a tendency for essentialism, anthropocentrism, teleology); 2) biological coherence; 3) barriers/ attractors to intervention access. We discuss how these factors are important in understanding how folk science evolves and may influence development initiatives.

Ethnomedicine for People, Animals, and Plants; Evolving Explanatory Models in a Changing Subsistence System

**Author(s):** Vale, G; McGuigan, N; Whiten, A Humans are distinctive in their propensity for cumulative cultural evolution, yet few studies directly compare human and non-human abilities to solve and socially learn the same increasingly complex tasks. Here we explore chimpanzees’ and children’s solving of an extractive foraging and tool use task, designed to offer opportunities for the emergence of cumulative culture. Groups of 3-4-year-old children and adult chimpanzees were each presented with a large puzzlebox incorporating four increasingly difficult levels of solution. Some required tool use, or building on this, tool modification, to retrieve increasingly preferred rewards. Overall, children, but not chimpanzees, showed some indication of cumulative progress, with group-tested children’s solution complexity surpassing what individuals invented when tested alone. However, after controlling for test time, such that asocial controls and groups received the same exposure to the task, this species difference disappeared. Direct species comparisons further suggest there were no significant differences in the highest task level reached by chimpanzees and children, nor in the number of individuals that solved each task level. Our results suggest that young children may not outperform adult chimpanzees on a cumulatively evolving tool use task.

Testing the scope of cumulative culture in groups of young children and chimpanzees

**Author(s):** Delval, I; Fernández-Bolaños, M; Visalberghi, E; Izar, P; Valentova, JV Among nonhuman primates (NHP), same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) is frequent and appears in several forms, such as courtship, mounting or manual-genital-oral stimulation. Possible functions include practice for heterosexual copulation, tension regulation, reconciliation or bond strengthening. Sexual interactions, though, varies among populations and species. Dual-inheritance perspective can be taken to explore possible interactions between evolved same-sex attractions and specific behaviors that are modified by social learning, occur under specific conditions, and can serve for novel social functions. Capuchin monkeys are known for their rich sexual behavior, with elaborated courtships. While same-sex mounting and genital inspection are common in capuchins’ play, same-sex courtship has been overlooked. Here we describe the first case of two young (one weaning infant and one sub-adult) males of wild-living Sapajus xanthosternos, performing a 15-min courtship. The males performed 16 out of 20 previously described heterosexual behaviors, showing a great overlap with adult courtship. If “practice hypothesis” is correct, this behavior should be widespread among males and females throughout development. Instead, we propose that sex (homosexual and heterosexual) is a powerful and efficient way of communicating social messages, so here it has “strengthening bonds” function. This could extend the prosocial hypothesis for same-sex attraction in humans to NHP.

Does culture spur rhythmic categories in animal communication? Evidence from sperm whales, Java sparrows, and harbour seals

Downloads

Next from Cultural Evolution Society 2022

Human self-domestication and speech evolution through the lens of the oxytocin and vasotocin gene family

Similar lecture

Breeding seasons of sula spp. in fernando de noronha archipelago

Stay up to date with the latest Underline news!

PRESENTATIONS

CONFERENCES

COMPANY

RESOURCES