%0 Journal Article %A Sibilsky, Anne %A Colleran, Heidi %A McElreath, Richard %A Haun, Daniel B. M. %+ Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society Max Planck Research Group Birth Rites - Cultures of Reproduction, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society Department of Human Behavior Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society Department of Human Behavior Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society %T Expanding the understanding of majority-bias in children’s social learning : %G eng %U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000A-6FFA-1 %R 10.1038/s41598-022-10576-3 %7 2022-04-25 %D 2022 %8 25.04.2022 %* Review method: peer-reviewed %X Prior experiments with children across seven different societies have indicated U-shaped age patterns in the likelihood of copying majority demonstrations. It is unclear which learning strategies underlie the observed responses that create these patterns. Here we broaden the understanding of children’s learning strategies by: (1) exploring social learning patterns among 6–13-year-olds (n = 270) from ethnolinguistically varied communities in Vanuatu; (2) comparing these data with those reported from other societies (n = 629), and (3) re-analysing our and previous data based on a theoretically plausible set of underlying strategies using Bayesian methods. We find higher rates of social learning in children from Vanuatu, a country with high linguistic and cultural diversity. Furthermore, our results provide statistical evidence for modest U-shaped age patterns for a more clearly delineated majority learning strategy across the current and previously investigated societies, suggesting that the developmental mechanisms structuring majority bias are cross-culturally highly recurrent and hence a fundamental feature of early human social learning. %J Scientific Reports %V 12 %] 6723 %I Nature Publishing Group %@ 2045-2322