Article,
Random drift and culture change
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 271 (1547): 1443--1450 (Jul 22, 2004)
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2004.2746
Abstract
We show that the frequency distributions of cultural variants, in three different real–world examples—first names, archaeological pottery and applications for technology patents—follow power laws that can be explained by a simple model of random drift. We conclude that cultural and economic choices often reflect a decision process that is value–neutral; this result has far–reaching testable implications for social–science research.
