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Children (and adults) need status to disseminate their innovations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2026

Katie Vasquez Open the ORCID record for Katie Vasquez [Opens in a new window]
Katie Vasquez*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA kvasquez@uchicago.edu https://katievasq.github.io/
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Children have creative, innovative minds. But not all innovations become cultural touchstones. I propose that innovations are more widely adopted when spearheaded by a high-status member of a social hierarchy. This works because people want to emulate high-status others (including some children), thus facilitating the mainstreaming of high-status people’s cultural innovations.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e252
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© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press

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