Culture creates its own rules: the rise of conservatism and persuasion

Many aspects of human behaviour are attributed to culture, but the extent to which culture is influenced by our genes remains strongly debated. Cultural evolution has been viewed as controlled by a genetically determined human nature, as a distinct process in interaction with genetic evolution, and as an autonomous process wholly free from genetic influences. Proponents of the latter view often imply that cultural evolution may take any direction, but this is not necessarily true. Here we show how forces that operate within culture itself can systematically shape behaviour and personality traits that have a significant impact on cultural change. Specifically, we show that both unwillingness to change (``conservatism'') and influencing others to become like yourself (``persuasion'') are traits favoured by cultural evolution, even when individuals have no genetic predisposition towards these traits.