The evolution of prestige: freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission

Abstract

Presents an “information goods” theory that explains prestige processes as an emergent product of psychological adaptations that evolved to improve the quality of information acquired via cultural transmission. Building on social exchange theories, it is argued that a wider range of phenomena associated with prestige procceses can more plausibly be explained by this simple theory than by others, and its predictions are tested with data from throughout the social sciences. The differences between dominance (force or force threat) and prestige (freely conferred deference) are distinguished.