Peer cultures undeniably contribute important adaptive information to the larger cultural landscape, as Lew-Levy and Amir convincingly argue in their target article. Early developmental stages have long been acknowledged as making important contributions to evolutionary fitness (Gould, Reference Gould1977), including the evolution of social behaviors (Toth & Robinson, Reference Toth and Robinson2007), and it should be similar for cultural evolution. We agree that the innovation and rapid knowledge dissemination facilitated by children’s peer cultures are important engines of cultural adaptation, especially when environments are subject to swift changes. Indeed, this claim is consistent with recent modeling of the role of “peripheral” groups in collective innovation and adaptation (Milzman & Moser, Reference Milzman and Moser2023; Turner et al., Reference Turner, Singleton, Harris, Harryman, Lopez, Arthur, Muraida and Jones2023). Here, we wish to highlight an important and overlooked factor in explaining differences in the potential for innovation within peer cultures within and between cultures. This is the nature of the relevant risk landscape for the social and physical environment in which a community resides.
The risk landscape refers broadly to the degree of uncertainty individuals face regarding the outcomes of their decisions, and to the affordances and constraints for engaging with that uncertainty. Three major dimensions define this landscape: wealth buffers, which characterizes how much individuals can lose without ruinous outcomes (such as crippling health problems, bankruptcy, or death); aggregate uncertainty, which characterizes peoples’ expectations of community-wide correlated environmental changes (such as climate events or economic downturns); and idiosyncratic uncertainty, which characterizes individuals’ unique expectations of changes to their local conditions (including the possibility of personal accidents, health issues, or job loss).
In environments characterized by high-risk conditions – where wealth buffers are small and aggregate or idiosyncratic uncertainty is high – the potential costs of experimentation and innovation may be too much to bear. In such environments, unsuccessful experiments can lead not only to personal setbacks but to catastrophic consequences that can ripple through entire social groups, as when the closing of a factory decimates an entire town’s economy. When uncertainty is primarily idiosyncratic, learning from peers who might be experiencing very different local conditions can lead to suboptimal or ruinous outcomes (Smaldino & Pérez Velilla, Reference Smaldino and Pérez VelillaIn press), as when two pastoralists share herd management strategies, but differences in the local predator populations result in significant livestock loss for one despite successful herds for the other.
Lew-Levy and Amir emphasize that peer cultures often provide innovative, diverse, and potentially adaptive solutions due to their exploratory nature. In high-risk environments, however, cultural innovation – especially from peer cultures – faces considerable barriers. Such environments create a premium on conservative cultural strategies, characterized by a reliance on tried-and-true methods transmitted by older generational cohorts. This conservatism arises from a selective pressure to minimize potential losses rather than maximize potential gains, thereby limiting the viability and attractiveness of exploratory strategies.
Our recent modeling research (Pérez Velilla, Beheim, & Smaldino, Reference Pérez Velilla, Beheim and SmaldinoIn press) indicates that conservative learning strategies, which focus on the preservation of intergenerational knowledge, tend to dominate in environments where errors carry severe penalties. It seems likely that this sort of conservative cultural inertia will often extend into peer cultures. When the stakes are high, children may internalize risk-averse norms, and mixed-age peer cohorts could serve as chains of high-fidelity conservative cultural transmission rather than as sources of innovation. Consequently, peer cultures in high-risk settings may function less as hotbeds of cultural innovation and more as vectors for conservative transmission, reinforcing rather than challenging existing cultural practices.
However, under lower-risk conditions – where wealth buffers, social safety nets, or ecological stability reduce the consequences of failure – peer cultures are likely to flourish, particularly when any environmental changes are correlated across the community. These more forgiving environments afford the luxury of trial-and-error learning, allowing peer groups to experiment and rapidly disseminate novel solutions without existential threat. Our models (Pérez Velilla, Beheim, & Smaldino, Reference Pérez Velilla, Beheim and SmaldinoIn press) predict exactly this pattern: exploratory learning strategies, which leverage peer influence and youthful experimentation, thrive in low-risk, affluent settings and are bolstered by the presence of aggregate uncertainty. Thus, the influence of peer cultures on community resilience and adaptability is conditional, fundamentally tied to the surrounding risk landscape.
An additional dimension to consider is how socioeconomic stratification within communities interacts with these risk conditions. Wealthier strata typically enjoy lower effective risk levels due to their greater capacity to buffer against potential losses. This insulation allows them to engage more freely in exploratory learning, leading to more innovative peer cultures. Conversely, disadvantaged groups face intensified risks and thus are compelled toward greater conservatism, and the peer cultures in these scenarios might serve as vectors of conservative cultural transmission. This divergence exacerbates inequalities in innovation and adaptability across strata, influencing long-term community dynamics and potentially perpetuating systemic disparities (Pérez Velilla, Beheim, & Smaldino, Reference Pérez Velilla, Beheim and SmaldinoIn press).
In summary, we emphasize that while peer cultures undoubtedly contribute valuable adaptive innovations, their capacity to do so is significantly modulated by the risk landscapes in which their communities are embedded. Recognizing this constraint highlights the necessity of integrating analyses of environmental uncertainty and risk management strategies into studies of peer cultural contributions. By doing so, we can better understand the nuanced roles that children’s peer cultures play – not merely as generators of cultural diversity and innovation, but as integral components deeply embedded within cultural systems shaped by risk and uncertainty.
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Peer cultures undeniably contribute important adaptive information to the larger cultural landscape, as Lew-Levy and Amir convincingly argue in their target article. Early developmental stages have long been acknowledged as making important contributions to evolutionary fitness (Gould, Reference Gould1977), including the evolution of social behaviors (Toth & Robinson, Reference Toth and Robinson2007), and it should be similar for cultural evolution. We agree that the innovation and rapid knowledge dissemination facilitated by children’s peer cultures are important engines of cultural adaptation, especially when environments are subject to swift changes. Indeed, this claim is consistent with recent modeling of the role of “peripheral” groups in collective innovation and adaptation (Milzman & Moser, Reference Milzman and Moser2023; Turner et al., Reference Turner, Singleton, Harris, Harryman, Lopez, Arthur, Muraida and Jones2023). Here, we wish to highlight an important and overlooked factor in explaining differences in the potential for innovation within peer cultures within and between cultures. This is the nature of the relevant risk landscape for the social and physical environment in which a community resides.
The risk landscape refers broadly to the degree of uncertainty individuals face regarding the outcomes of their decisions, and to the affordances and constraints for engaging with that uncertainty. Three major dimensions define this landscape: wealth buffers, which characterizes how much individuals can lose without ruinous outcomes (such as crippling health problems, bankruptcy, or death); aggregate uncertainty, which characterizes peoples’ expectations of community-wide correlated environmental changes (such as climate events or economic downturns); and idiosyncratic uncertainty, which characterizes individuals’ unique expectations of changes to their local conditions (including the possibility of personal accidents, health issues, or job loss).
In environments characterized by high-risk conditions – where wealth buffers are small and aggregate or idiosyncratic uncertainty is high – the potential costs of experimentation and innovation may be too much to bear. In such environments, unsuccessful experiments can lead not only to personal setbacks but to catastrophic consequences that can ripple through entire social groups, as when the closing of a factory decimates an entire town’s economy. When uncertainty is primarily idiosyncratic, learning from peers who might be experiencing very different local conditions can lead to suboptimal or ruinous outcomes (Smaldino & Pérez Velilla, Reference Smaldino and Pérez VelillaIn press), as when two pastoralists share herd management strategies, but differences in the local predator populations result in significant livestock loss for one despite successful herds for the other.
Lew-Levy and Amir emphasize that peer cultures often provide innovative, diverse, and potentially adaptive solutions due to their exploratory nature. In high-risk environments, however, cultural innovation – especially from peer cultures – faces considerable barriers. Such environments create a premium on conservative cultural strategies, characterized by a reliance on tried-and-true methods transmitted by older generational cohorts. This conservatism arises from a selective pressure to minimize potential losses rather than maximize potential gains, thereby limiting the viability and attractiveness of exploratory strategies.
Our recent modeling research (Pérez Velilla, Beheim, & Smaldino, Reference Pérez Velilla, Beheim and SmaldinoIn press) indicates that conservative learning strategies, which focus on the preservation of intergenerational knowledge, tend to dominate in environments where errors carry severe penalties. It seems likely that this sort of conservative cultural inertia will often extend into peer cultures. When the stakes are high, children may internalize risk-averse norms, and mixed-age peer cohorts could serve as chains of high-fidelity conservative cultural transmission rather than as sources of innovation. Consequently, peer cultures in high-risk settings may function less as hotbeds of cultural innovation and more as vectors for conservative transmission, reinforcing rather than challenging existing cultural practices.
However, under lower-risk conditions – where wealth buffers, social safety nets, or ecological stability reduce the consequences of failure – peer cultures are likely to flourish, particularly when any environmental changes are correlated across the community. These more forgiving environments afford the luxury of trial-and-error learning, allowing peer groups to experiment and rapidly disseminate novel solutions without existential threat. Our models (Pérez Velilla, Beheim, & Smaldino, Reference Pérez Velilla, Beheim and SmaldinoIn press) predict exactly this pattern: exploratory learning strategies, which leverage peer influence and youthful experimentation, thrive in low-risk, affluent settings and are bolstered by the presence of aggregate uncertainty. Thus, the influence of peer cultures on community resilience and adaptability is conditional, fundamentally tied to the surrounding risk landscape.
An additional dimension to consider is how socioeconomic stratification within communities interacts with these risk conditions. Wealthier strata typically enjoy lower effective risk levels due to their greater capacity to buffer against potential losses. This insulation allows them to engage more freely in exploratory learning, leading to more innovative peer cultures. Conversely, disadvantaged groups face intensified risks and thus are compelled toward greater conservatism, and the peer cultures in these scenarios might serve as vectors of conservative cultural transmission. This divergence exacerbates inequalities in innovation and adaptability across strata, influencing long-term community dynamics and potentially perpetuating systemic disparities (Pérez Velilla, Beheim, & Smaldino, Reference Pérez Velilla, Beheim and SmaldinoIn press).
In summary, we emphasize that while peer cultures undoubtedly contribute valuable adaptive innovations, their capacity to do so is significantly modulated by the risk landscapes in which their communities are embedded. Recognizing this constraint highlights the necessity of integrating analyses of environmental uncertainty and risk management strategies into studies of peer cultural contributions. By doing so, we can better understand the nuanced roles that children’s peer cultures play – not merely as generators of cultural diversity and innovation, but as integral components deeply embedded within cultural systems shaped by risk and uncertainty.
Financial support
This work was supported by grants from the John Templeton Foundation (#63336) and the National Science Foundation (BCS-2241874) to PES.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.