How Communication Shapes Culture

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How Communication Shapes Culture

LUCIAN CONWAY, III and MARK SCHALLER

Culture is the precipitate of cognition and communication in a human population. (Dan Sperber, 1990, p. 42)

Businessmen typically wear ties. Most Europeans know the story of Hansel and Gretel. Psychologists rarely treat a research finding as meaningful unless p < .05. What do these three things have in common? Not much, except that they are cultural norms. They are culturally normative not because they are especially "right" but simply because they have been successfully communicated. Within the corporate world, the tie-wearing prescription has been communicated more successfully than alternative sartorial styles. "Hansel and Gretel" has been more successfully communicated from parent to child than, say, the story of "Hefty Hans." And, despite many strenuous attempts to the contrary, the p ................
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