Culture and cultural transmission is underpinned by social learning, allowing an individual to adopt the traditions of one’s cultural group by interacting with others. Here I describe studies which demonstrate the role of imitation, the copying of methods and outcomes of behaviour, on cultural sustainability and innovation. Through diffusion studies with children using artificial fruits, the transmission of behaviour within and across groups was investigated. The results show that children are faithful to the methods and outcomes they witness, including copying irrelevant actions. Children in open diffusion studies acquired more than one solution, but sub-groups were established, conforming to a solution with other solutions being held in one’s repertoire. Imitation is a critical skill underpinning the adoption and transmission of culture, with other mechanisms, such as asocial learning, teaching and emulation playing a less pertinent role.

文化和文化传播以社会学习为基础，允许个人通过与他人互动来采用自己文化群体的传统。在这里，我描述了一些研究，这些研究证明了模仿、复制方法和行为结果、文化可持续性和创新的作用。通过对使用人造水果的儿童进行的扩散研究，研究了群体内部和群体之间的行为传播。结果表明，孩子们忠实于他们所看到的方法和结果，包括复制不相关的行为。开放扩散研究中的儿童获得了不止一种解决方案，但建立了亚组，以符合一个解决方案，而其他解决方案则包含在一个人的曲目中。模仿是支撑文化采用和传播的关键技能，