Dr Alex Mesoudi
Lecturer
- Room: 2.04, Fogg building
- Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 7486
- Email: a.mesoudi("at" sign)qmul.ac.uk
Research interests:
Research website: http://sites.google.com/site/amesoudi2/
My research interests are in human cultural transmission and human cultural evolution. I use a combination of laboratory experiments and mathematical/agent-based models to explain cultural change within an evolutionary framework.
I have employed a range of experimental methods to simulate cultural transmission in the lab. Studies using the “transmission chain method” involve passing written information along linear chains of participants, in order to reveal systematic biases in cultural transmission that distort information in particular directions. Studies using this method have revealed biases for increasingly hierarchical knowledge (Mesoudi & Whiten, 2004) and for information concerning social interactions (Mesoudi, Whiten & Dunbar, 2006). Other studies have examined the social learning rules that people employ within small groups. I have developed the “Virtual Arrowhead Task” in which participants design and copy arrowheads (Mesoudi & O’Brien, 2008; Mesoudi, 2008). By comparing the data we generate in the lab with actual archaeological data, we can gain insights into the cultural processes that generated past cultural patterns and trends.
I have also used mathematical and agent-based models to simulate cultural change, including models of the effects of culturally-transmitted paternity beliefs on human mating behaviour (Mesoudi & Laland, 2007) and the consequences of conformity on the distribution of apparently randomly-changing cultural traits such as baby names and patent citations (Mesoudi & Lycett, in press).
All of this work is pursued within a cultural evolutionary framework, in which human culture is viewed as a Darwinian evolutionary system (Mesoudi, Whiten & Laland, 2004). Consequently, many of the methods, tools, concepts and theories used by biologists to study biological/genetic evolution can be adapted to study cultural change (Mesoudi, Whiten & Laland, 2006).
Research Groups:
Postgraduate supervision:
Kempe, Marius; m.kempe ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;
Sarkol, Vera; v.sarkol ("at" sign) qmul.ac.uk;