Individual differences in intelligence and personality guide human social learning

Social learning underpins much of human success, but little is known about the extent to which individual differences in intelligence and personality guide human social learning. This is tested in the present study. Participants completed a range of general intelligence tests, a personality questionnaire, and a battery of novel behavioral tasks. In each behavioral task participants were trained on one solution to a problem and were then shown a novel solution that varied in quality. Participants were more likely to switch to the novel solution if it was superior to the trained solution, consistent with content-biased social learning. However, when the trained and novel solutions were equal in quality, participants showed a bias to maintain the trained solution. Higher intelligence was associated with switching to novel solutions in general, and this association was strongest for switching to superior solutions. Higher openness to experience was also associated with switching to novel solutions, but to those that were similar in quality or inferior to the trained solution. Study 2 showed that greater familiarity with the trained solution increased maintenance bias, reducing social learning. Our findings highlight the impact of individual differences and experiential factors on human social learning. • Intelligence predicts switching to superior solutions in social learning. • Openness to experience predicts switching to novel but inferior solutions in social learning. • Content bias drives preference for superior solutions over equal or inferior options. • Familiarity with prior solutions strengthens maintenance bias. • Behavioral tasks reveal distinct roles of individual traits in social learning and cumulative culture.