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The Status Competition Model of Cultural Production

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Abstract

Humans create many apparently functionless artifacts such as paintings, novels, poems, films, and decorative blankets. From an evolutionary perspective, such creations appear somewhat puzzling. Why create artifacts that do not appear to contribute to survival? One recent explanation, the cultural courtship model, argued that such creations are used to signal genetic health to the other sex. In this way, cultural creators are potentially rewarded with higher quality mates. We propose an alternative (but not completely contradictory) model, the status competition model of cultural production, which argues that cultural displays often, but not exclusively, signal the possession of important cultural competencies to others in a coalition. Cultural creators are recompensed with prestige, which they can use to secure mates or invest in their kin and lineage. We examine evidence for and against these models and conclude that the status competition model can better explain cultural production than current theory.

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Notes

  1. This description of the cultural courtship model was simplified to achieve expository clarity and to present a clear alternative to the status competition model of cultural production. The researchers who presented and have supported the CCM do not argue that all cultural productions and cultural displays are ultimately reducible to courtships displays (Miller 2010). Miller and others have eloquently argued that consumer products and other cultural displays can be used to signal to potential allies, to kin, and to enemies as well as to potential mates. However, the emphasis of the CCM is clearly on motivations to allure the other sex. And that emphasis, we argue, is at least partially misplaced. To a large degree, therefore, our disagreement with the CCM is a matter of emphasis. And, in fact, the SCM can be seen as an augmentation of the CCM rather than an alternative.

  2. We suspect, along with Miller (2013) and Stewart-Williams and Thomas (2013), that many evolutionary psychologists have imbibed a crude version of the CCM. In this version, men compete vigorously for access to sexual partners, whereas women calmly and coolly assess the outcomes of such competitions and displays. It is very important to stress that this crude version of the CCM is not the version of the CCM that Miller endorses or proposed. However, because it is a version that remains popular, we may sometimes suggest that the CCM is cruder and more sex differentiated than it was in the more sophisticated writings of Miller (2000, 2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Bo Winegard

  2. University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Ben Winegard & David C. Geary

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  1. Bo Winegard
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  2. Ben Winegard
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Correspondence to Bo Winegard.

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Winegard, B., Winegard, B. & Geary, D.C. The Status Competition Model of Cultural Production. Evolutionary Psychological Science 4, 351–371 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-018-0147-7

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