Innovation and social learning are the pillars of cultural evolution, allowing cultural behaviours to cumulatively advance over generations. Yet, little is known about individual differences in the use of social and asocial information. We examined whether personality influenced 7-11-year-old children's (N = 282) propensity to elect to observe others first or independently generate solutions to novel problems. Conscientiousness was associated with electing for no demonstrations, while agreeableness was associated with opting for demonstrations. For children receiving demonstrations, openness to experience consistently predicted deviation from observed methods. Children who opted for no demonstrations were also more likely than those opting for demonstrations to exhibit tool manufacture on an innovation challenge and displayed higher creativity, as measured by an alternate uses task. These results highlight how new cultural traditions emerge, establish and advance by identifying which individuals generate new cultural variants in populations and which are influential in the diffusion of these variants, and help reduce the apparent tension within the ‘ratchet’ of cumulative culture.

中文翻译：

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性格预测儿童的创新和社会学习：对文化进化的影响

创新和社会学习是文化进化的支柱，使文化行为能够代代相传。然而，人们在使用社会和非社会信息方面的个体差异知之甚少。我们检查了性格是否影响 7-11 岁儿童 (N = 282) 选择首先观察他人或独立产生新问题解决方案的倾向。尽责性与选择不示威有关，而随和与选择示威有关。对于接受示范的儿童，开放体验一致预测的与观察方法的偏差。选择不展示的孩子也比选择展示的孩子更有可能在创新挑战中展示工具制造并表现出更高的创造力，由替代用途任务衡量。这些结果通过识别哪些个体在人群中产生新的文化变体以及哪些对这些变体的传播有影响，突出了新的文化传统如何出现、建立和发展，并有助于减少累积文化“棘轮”内的明显张力。