Social learning research outside the laboratory: How and why?

Abstract

Social learning enables both human and nonhuman animals
to acquire information relevant to many biologically
important activities: foraging (Galef & Giraldeau, 2001;
Mesoudi & O’Brien, 2008), mate choice (Jones, De-
Bruine, Little, Burriss, & Feinberg, 2007; Laland, 1994;
White, 2004), conflict (Peake & McGregor, 2004), and
predator avoidance (Griffin, 2004). Although use of social
information is not inherently adaptive (Boyd & Richerson,
1985; Laland, 2004), its frequent roles in the development
in animals of both innovations (sensu Reader & Laland,
2003) and routine skills (Jaeggi et al., 2010; Krakauer,
2005), as well as its exceptional prevalence in human societies, suggest the importance of social information in
biological and cultural evolution.