Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktakes
Evolution and Human Behavior • Vol/Iss. 38(2017) • Elsevier • • Published In • Pages: 474-480 •
By Acerbi, Alberto, Kendal, Jeremy, Tehrani, Jamshid J.
Hypothesis
Population size will have an influence on cultural complexity as measured by the number of traits in "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The tale of the kind and the unkind girls"
Note
No consistent relationship was found between population size and traits (number of characters, events, etc.) of the two international tale types. 5.5% and 94.5% quantiles of the posterior probability of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The tale of the kind and the unkind girls" were (-0.07, 0.06) and (-0.05, 0.12), respectively. (model using nineteenth century estimates of population size showed similar results)
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayesian multilevel model with Poisson likelihood | Not Supported | n.a. | Beta=0.0 (Little Red Riding Hood), 0.04 (The tale of the kind and the unkind girls) | UNKNOWN |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Population Size | Independent | Population |
| Traits in "Little Red Riding Hood" | Dependent | Verbal Arts, Literature, Literary Texts, Texts |
| Traits in "The tale of the kind and the unkind girls" | Dependent | Verbal Arts |