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Abstract

Replying to C. Andersson & D. Read Nature 511, 10.1038/nature13411 (2014)

In the accompanying Comment1, Andersson & Read challenge our results2 that group size influences cultural complexity. Using a dual-task computer game, our experiment demonstrated that an increasing group size prevents the loss of cultural traits (simple and complex), promotes their improvements and prevents cultural richness to disappear2. Among these various effects, Andersson & Read1 are questioning the finding that larger groups favour the persistence of the complex trait.

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Figure 1: Frequency of individuals exploiting the complex task according to group size.

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References

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Derex, M., Beugin, MP., Godelle, B. et al. Derex et al. reply. Nature 511, E2 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13412

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