IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v9y2022i1d10.1057_s41599-022-01139-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of population size in folk tune complexity

Author

Listed:
  • Sally E. Street

    (Durham University
    Durham University
    Durham University)

  • Tuomas Eerola

    (Durham University)

  • Jeremy R. Kendal

    (Durham University
    Durham University
    Durham University)

Abstract

Demography, particularly population size, plays a key role in cultural complexity. However, the relationship between population size and complexity appears to vary across domains: while studies of technology typically find a positive correlation, the opposite is true for language, and the role of population size in complexity in the arts remains to be established. Here, we investigate the relationship between population size and complexity in music using Irish folk session tunes as a case study. Using analyses of a large online folk tune dataset, we show that popular tunes played by larger communities of musicians have diversified into a greater number of different versions which encompass more variation in melodic complexity compared with less popular tunes. However, popular tunes also tend to be intermediate in melodic complexity and variation in complexity for popular tunes is lower than expected given the increased number of tune versions. We also find that user preferences for individual tune versions are more skewed in popular tunes. Taken together, these results suggest that while larger populations create more frequent opportunities for musical innovation, they encourage convergence upon intermediate levels of melodic complexity due to a widespread inverse U-shaped relationship between complexity and aesthetic preference. We explore the assumptions underlying our empirical analyses further using simple simulations of tune diffusion through populations of different sizes, finding that a combination of biased copying and structured populations appears most consistent with our results. Our study demonstrates a unique relationship between population size and cultural complexity in the arts, confirming that the relationship between population size and cultural complexity is domain-dependent, rather than universal.

Suggested Citation

  • Sally E. Street & Tuomas Eerola & Jeremy R. Kendal, 2022. "The role of population size in folk tune complexity," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01139-y
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01139-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-022-01139-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-022-01139-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hadfield, Jarrod D., 2010. "MCMC Methods for Multi-Response Generalized Linear Mixed Models: The MCMCglmm R Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 33(i02).
    2. Patrick E. Savage, 2019. "Cultural evolution of music," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Maxime Derex & Marie-Pauline Beugin & Bernard Godelle & Michel Raymond, 2013. "Experimental evidence for the influence of group size on cultural complexity," Nature, Nature, vol. 503(7476), pages 389-391, November.
    4. Kobayashi, Yutaka & Aoki, Kenichi, 2012. "Innovativeness, population size and cumulative cultural evolution," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 38-47.
    5. Mark Collard & April Ruttle & Briggs Buchanan & Michael J O’Brien, 2013. "Population Size and Cultural Evolution in Nonindustrial Food-Producing Societies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-1, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kobayashi, Yutaka & Ohtsuki, Hisashi & Wakano, Joe Y., 2016. "Population size vs. social connectedness — A gene-culture coevolutionary approach to cumulative cultural evolution," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 87-95.
    2. Aoki, Kenichi, 2015. "Modeling abrupt cultural regime shifts during the Palaeolithic and Stone Age," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 6-12.
    3. I. Albarrán & P. Alonso-González & J. M. Marin, 2017. "Some criticism to a general model in Solvency II: an explanation from a clustering point of view," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1289-1308, June.
    4. Andrés López-Sepulcre & Sebastiano De Bona & Janne K. Valkonen & Kate D.L. Umbers & Johanna Mappes, 2015. "Item Response Trees: a recommended method for analyzing categorical data in behavioral studies," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(5), pages 1268-1273.
    5. Jesse Shore & Ethan Bernstein & David Lazer, 2014. "Facts and Figuring: An Experimental Investigation of Network Structure and Performance in Information and Solution Spaces," Harvard Business School Working Papers 14-075, Harvard Business School, revised Jun 2014.
    6. Bakar, Khandoker Shuvo & Sahu, Sujit K., 2015. "spTimer: Spatio-Temporal Bayesian Modeling Using R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 63(i15).
    7. Baldini, Ryan, 2013. "Two success-biased social learning strategies," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 43-49.
    8. Colin F. Camerer & Anna Dreber & Felix Holzmeister & Teck-Hua Ho & Jürgen Huber & Magnus Johannesson & Michael Kirchler & Gideon Nave & Brian A. Nosek & Thomas Pfeiffer & Adam Altmejd & Nick Buttrick , 2018. "Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 637-644, September.
    9. Amoroso, S., 2013. "Heterogeneity of innovative, collaborative, and productive firm-level processes," Other publications TiSEM f5784a49-7053-401d-855d-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Kandt, Jens & Leak, Alistair, 2019. "Examining inclusive mobility through smartcard data: What shall we make of senior citizens' declining bus patronage in the West Midlands?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Hart, Jordan D. A. & Franks, Daniel Wayne & Brent, Lauren & Weiss, Michael N., 2022. "bisonR - Bayesian Inference of Social Networks with R," OSF Preprints ywu7j, Center for Open Science.
    12. Tuomo Jaakkonen & Sami M. Kivelä & Christoph M. Meier & Jukka T. Forsman, 2015. "The use and relative importance of intraspecific and interspecific social information in a bird community," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(1), pages 55-64.
    13. Mohamed M. Mostafa, 2016. "Post-materialism, Religiosity, Political Orientation, Locus of Control and Concern for Global Warming: A Multilevel Analysis Across 40 Nations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1273-1298, September.
    14. Wakano, Joe Yuichiro & Gilpin, William & Kadowaki, Seiji & Feldman, Marcus W. & Aoki, Kenichi, 2018. "Ecocultural range-expansion scenarios for the replacement or assimilation of Neanderthals by modern humans," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 3-14.
    15. Alexander Robitzsch, 2021. "A Comprehensive Simulation Study of Estimation Methods for the Rasch Model," Stats, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-23, October.
    16. Ashleigh S Griffin & Suzanne H Alonzo & Charlie K Cornwallis, 2013. "Why Do Cuckolded Males Provide Paternal Care?," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-9, March.
    17. Jamie Dunning & Terry Burke & Alex Hoi Hang Chan & Heung Ying Janet Chik & Tim Evans & Julia Schroeder, 2023. "Opposite-sex associations are linked with annual fitness, but sociality is stable over lifetime," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(3), pages 315-324.
    18. Nakamura, Mitsuhiro & Wakano, Joe Yuichiro & Aoki, Kenichi & Kobayashi, Yutaka, 2020. "The popularity spectrum applied to a cross-cultural question," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 104-116.
    19. Krieg Sabine & Boonstra Harm Jan & Smeets Marc, 2016. "Small-Area Estimation with Zero-Inflated Data – a Simulation Study," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 32(4), pages 963-986, December.
    20. Albarrán Lozano, Irene & Marín Díazaraque, Juan Miguel & Alonso, Pablo J., 2011. "Why using a general model in Solvency II is not a good idea : an explanation from a Bayesian point of view," DES - Working Papers. Statistics and Econometrics. WS ws113729, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Estadística.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01139-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.