Loss sensitivity predicts cultural choice

This proposed study asks whether cultural choices and retellings follow one shared sensitivity to loss of meaning, a question that could simplify explanations of cultural transmission. Participants would face identical candidate outputs in reconstruction and choice tasks. Researchers would calibrate each producer type's response to loss of meaning or function, plus production effort, using nonsocial reconstruction alone. The hypothesis predicts that this one calibration will forecast later choices and retellings when the higher-loss option is randomly reversed. A repeatable mismatch after matching knowledge and opportunity would point to an additional causal response. Testing requires comprehension checks, estimates of lapses and opportunities, and preregistered decision margins.