Random drift and culture change
TLDR
It is concluded that cultural and economic choices often reflect a decision process that is value–neutral; this result has far–reaching testable implications for social–science research.Abstract:
We show that the frequency distributions of cultural variants, in three different real–world examples—first names, archaeological pottery and applications for technology patents—follow power laws that can be explained by a simple model of random drift. We conclude that cultural and economic choices often reflect a decision process that is value–neutral; this result has far–reaching testable implications for social–science research.read more
Citations
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References
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TL;DR: The neutral theory as discussed by the authors states that the great majority of evolutionary changes at the molecular level are caused not by Darwinian selection but by random drift of selectively neutral mutants, which has caused controversy ever since.
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TL;DR: Page 108, last line of text, for "P/P″" read "P′/ P″."
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