Faithfulness-boost effect

Abstract

Social learning is essential for human adaptation. We transmit knowledge across generations, leading to a cultural evolution proccess in which tools, beliefs, and behaviors arise as emergent properties of the social system. Notwithstanding its importance, the effects of collaborator selection are commonly overlooked when studying human learning. This gap led us to investigate the impact of team play strategies and teammate selection in an online game. We found a ``Faithfulness-boost effect'', that provides a skill boost during the first games of experience that individually would only be acquired after thousands of game played. Loyal team-oriented behavior enable players to early gain individual skills.