Context, Consequence, Coincidence, and Cumulative Cultural Evolution: Linking Creativity and Culturo-Behavioral Phenomena Together Using Systems Principles and Processes of Selection by Consequences
Cultures evolve like organisms: creative acts that get reinforced stick around and multiply.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Krispin (2026) stitched together talks from a behavior-science conference.
The goal was to show how cultures change and how new ideas spread.
No new data were collected; the paper is a map, not a measure.
What they found
The author says selection by consequences works at the group level, not just the person level.
Creativity, language, and token systems are all products of the same basic rule: what gets reinforced keeps happening.
Systems science gives us the math to watch the rule play out across time and people.
How this fits with other research
Wan et al. (2026) ran pigeons in a token economy the same year. Their data give wings to Krispin’s theory: tokens act like mini-cultures that obey economic laws.
Davis et al. (1972) already called token economies “experimental markets.” Krispin widens that lens from clinic coins to whole cultural streams.
Cameron et al. (1996) showed how naming creates bidirectional symbols. Krispin places those symbols inside a larger evolutionary story.
Why it matters
You already shape behavior one client at a time. This paper reminds you that your interventions echo outward. A token board, a sign, a shared rule—all can become part of a “cultural genome.” Think of your program as a seed that can evolve past your direct control.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present article focuses on presentations from the second topical cluster from the 2024 Theory and Philosophy Conference held by the ABAI—Cultural Systems. The cultural systems cluster was comprised of two primary talks—“Unhinging Design from Darwinian and Skinnerian Selection” (Wasserman, 2024), and a second, co-authored by Sigrid Glenn and Maria Malott (and delivered by Sigrid Glenn), entitled “Behavior and Cumulative Cultural Evolution.” We will begin by briefly summarizing some of the main points of each talk, and then discussing some of the implications of the arguments developed in each. The approach taken to link these two seemingly different primary talks will be interdisciplinary. I will seek to illustrate how dynamic patterns of systemic interactions within systems of physical energy parallel the dynamic patterns of behavioral systems and enable us to “reconstruct” some of the main principles emphasized in the primary talks, while also seeking to develop an understanding of how various processes of selection by consequences (natural selection, operant selection, and selection of cultures) emerge from systemic interactions.
Perspectives on Behavior Science, 2026 · doi:10.1007/s40614-025-00492-y