Model similarity cues cultural selection of ritualized actions

Previous research suggests that ritualistic imitation is affiliative, functioning as a re-inclusion behaviour in response to ostracism threat. The Bifocal Stance Theory (BST) predicts that model similarity activates affiliative motivations and increases adoption of ritualized traits during cultural transmission, while prestigious models promote adoption of traits interpreted as causally efficacious. In a preregistered experiment, adult participants completed a two-block food choice task in which items were subjected to either causally opaque or causally transparent action sequences. Participants were paired with a social partner whose perceived similarity and prestige were experimentally manipulated. Choices were made privately in the first block and publicly in the second. Ritualized options elicited a robust choice preference in social contexts. When choices were made publicly, participants were more likely to select the ritualistically treated option when it had been chosen by a similar partner than when it had been chosen by either a prestigious or control partner, whereas having a prestigious partner did not reliably increase selection for instrumentally treated options compared to the other two partner conditions. We discuss implications for future work on similarity and prestige judgments in cultural evolution.