{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T11:01:40Z","timestamp":1789729300492,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":260,"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/terms"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Behav Brain Sci"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Anthropologists have noted, time and again, that cultural norms and institutions often (1) are \u201cfunctional,\u201d providing context-relevant benefits, (2) convergently evolve, and (3) benefit certain individuals over others. In this commentary, I consider inequality, self-interest, and coercion in complex cultural institutions. I extend Chater and Christiansen\u2019s theory of social tinkering, taking cues from Mercier and Sperber\u2019s argumentative theory of human reason and Singh et al.\u2019s self-interested enforcement hypothesis, to argue that humans are well-adapted \u201ccultural lobbyists.\u201d<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/s0140525x26106487","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T10:03:19Z","timestamp":1789725799000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A lobbying theory of cultural evolution: Rhetoric, expediency, and self-interest promote inequality in the prescriptive grammar of complex institutions"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"49","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6719-9507","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Duncan Noel Edward","family":"Stibbard-Hawkes","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Baylor University"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.1998.0217"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref18","volume-title":"Foucault and law: Towards a sociology of law as governance","author":"Hunt","year":"1994"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref7","first-page":"40","article-title":"\u201cScientific\u201d racism and the British theory of empire","volume":"2","author":"Curtin","year":"1960","journal-title":"Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref8","volume-title":"The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the coll\u00e8ge de France, 1978-1979","author":"Davidson","year":"2008"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/339380"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/648658"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref46","first-page":"1","article-title":"Subjective selection, super-attractors, and the origins of the cultural manifold","author":"Singh","year":"2025","journal-title":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences,"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0140525X15000242"},{"key":"S0140525X26106487_ref38","first-page":"83","volume-title":"Social inequality before farming? 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