Cultural evolution and personalization

TL;DR

This paper analyzes over a century of US baby name data to understand cultural evolution, proposing a stochastic model where personalization influences name choices, explaining observed distribution patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a stochastic model incorporating personalization and social influence to explain cultural evolution in baby names, supported by empirical data analysis.

Findings

Personalization significantly impacts name popularity dynamics.

The model reproduces observed distribution and inequality patterns.

Variations in personalization strength match empirical data.

Abstract

In social sciences, there is currently no consensus on the mechanism for cultural evolution. The evolution of first names of newborn babies offers a remarkable example for the researches in the field. Here we perform statistical analyses on over 100 years of data in the United States. We focus in particular on how the frequency-rank distribution and inequality of baby names change over time. We propose a stochastic model where name choice is determined by personalized preference and social influence. Remarkably, variations on the strength of personalized preference can account satisfactorily for the observed empirical features. Therefore, we claim that personalization drives cultural evolution, at least in the example of baby names.