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Measuring frequency-dependent selection in culture

Nature Human Behaviour volume 6, pages 1048–1055 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The frequency of a cultural trait can influence its tendency to be copied. We develop a maximum-likelihood method to measure such frequency-dependent selection from time series data, and we apply it to baby names and purebred dog preferences over the past century. The form of negative frequency dependence we infer among names explains their diversity patterns, and it replicates across the United States, France, Norway and the Netherlands. We find different growth rates for male versus female names, attributable to different rates of innovation, whereas biblical names enjoy a genuine selective advantage at all frequencies, which explains their predominance among top names. We show how frequency dependence emerges from a host of underlying selective mechanisms, including a preference for novelty that recapitulates boom–bust fads among dog owners. Our analysis of cultural evolution through frequency-dependent selection provides a quantitative account of social pressures to conform or to be different.

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Fig. 1: Cultural evolution of baby names.
Fig. 2: Frequency-dependent selection on first names.
Fig. 3: Female, male and biblical names.
Fig. 4: Frequency dependence and novelty preference in dog breeds.

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Data availability

All data are drawn from public sources and archived in a GitHub repository along with scripts to reproduce the analysis (https://github.com/mnewberry/fdsel-analysis).

Code availability

The inference software fdsel is open source and available on GitHub (https://github.com/mnewberry/fdsel). Scripts used to reproduce the analysis, packaged with archived public input data, are available in a separate repository (https://github.com/mnewberry/fdsel-analysis).

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Bloothooft (Meertens Instituut Nederlandse Voornamenbank) for preparation of anonymized first name data. The authors thank the John Templeton Foundation for funding (grant no. 62281). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Mitchell G. Newberry

  2. Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Mitchell G. Newberry

  3. Departments of Biology and Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Joshua B. Plotkin

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  1. Mitchell G. Newberry
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M.G.N. and J.B.P. conceived the study, designed the analysis and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Mitchell G. Newberry or Joshua B. Plotkin.

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Newberry, M.G., Plotkin, J.B. Measuring frequency-dependent selection in culture. Nat Hum Behav 6, 1048–1055 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01342-6

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