A new study found that people learn to preserve and advance their culture thanks to their social ties and interactions. The study also suggests that these same social networks is what makes us smarter, helping us hone our skills and advance our thinking.
social networks is what makes us smarter, helping us hone our skills and advance our thinking.
People’s ability to imitate others and adopt our own thinking on others’ work is what drives forward civilization. This study establishes for the first time in a lab context, how a community’s level of sociality predicts and nurtures its advancement. The more we surround ourselves with knowledgeable, expert people the more we gain from them and the more likely we are to transfer this advanced knowledge to the next generation.
The study assessed how skill teaching from generation to generation differs when the learner has a plethora of learning stimuli, as opposed to having a single person teaching them the new skill. The results were rather impressive, the better our access to networks of people and knowledge the stronger our skill acquisition.
It was also discovered that having more mentors and knowledge available through various networks, makes our skills last longer. Having less intellectual stimuli results in less enduring skill learning.
Why is this study so important?
When it comes to understanding how some cultures manage to advance with an impressively speed while others remain idle and gradually wither, this study reassures us that the social connectedness; is both an index and the key of our evolution potential.
This study has many applications in education and the industries of innovation and creativity. But it also has immediate application in our daily life, it encourages us to connect, share and teach each other and see how this helps us get smarter and with better skills.
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