Comparison of evolutionary rescue via biological and cultural evolution

Authors

Shibasaki, S.

Abstract

Rapid evolution allows populations to persist in environments where they would otherwise go extinct. This phenomenon, known as evolutionary rescue, is typically studied through biological evolution, yet adaptive traits can also arise and spread through cultural evolution. Here, the present study developed a stochastic eco-evolutionary model to compare evolutionary rescue through biological and cultural evolution under multiple transmission biases. The present model revealed that transmission bias strongly altered rescue probability by affecting the establishment of initially rare adaptive traits. Conformity bias reduced the rescue probability because rare adaptive traits were unlikely to be socially transmitted, whereas content and anticonformity biases promoted evolutionary rescue. In particular, anticonformity-biased transmission often generated higher rescue probabilities than biological evolution by accelerating the establishment of adaptive traits. These results demonstrate that the demographic consequences of cultural evolution depend critically on transmission bias and highlight the importance of considering social learning processes in evolutionary rescue theory. Understanding how adaptive behaviours are socially transmitted may also improve predictions of population persistence and inform conservation efforts in rapidly changing environments.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 02 Sep 2026.

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