Culture Now Dominates Human Evolution, Scientists Propose

Scientists propose that human culture, encompassing technology, medicine, and collaborative problem-solving, is increasingly influencing human evolution. This cultural impact may now be a more significant factor than traditional environmental pressures and biological constraints.

A Rapid Shift in Evolutionary Gears

Tim Waring, a cultural evolution researcher at the University of Maine and co-author of a September 2025 study, stated that human evolution appears to be "changing gears." He noted that learning adaptive cultural practices, such as useful skills, institutions, or technologies, allows for problem-solving much more rapidly than genetic evolution.

Evolution, typically a slow process of genetic change over generations, is generally shaped by environmental pressures. An example in humans is the higher frequency of sickle cell genes in malaria-prevalent regions, offering protection against the disease.

Historical Precedents and Modern Dominance

Historically, culture has also exerted selection pressures. The ability to digest lactose into adulthood is believed to have emerged in early pastoralist cultures. Additionally, a genetic shift reflected a decrease in the age at which women first have babies over 140 years in the French-Canadian population of Île aux Coudres.

Waring and evolutionary ecologist Zachary Wood argue that culture has become the dominant influence on selection pressures.

"Cultural evolution eats genetic evolution for breakfast," Wood indicated, though this often involves removing pressures that might have reduced lifespan rather than necessarily producing new genetic adaptations.

For instance, cesarean sections allow mothers to survive births that might have been fatal in the past, and medical cures address diseases like the plague, which historically left genetic marks on survivors' descendants.

Measuring the Acceleration

Waring and Wood developed a theory to measure how quickly this shift might be occurring, suggesting the transition is already underway and could be accelerating.

Individual Wellbeing and Societal Strength

Waring suggested that an individual's wellbeing is increasingly determined by cultural systems—such as community, nation, and technology—rather than solely by personal biology. He added that the importance of culture tends to grow due to its rapid accumulation of adaptive solutions.

Alternative Views and Ethical Considerations

Other researchers, including microbiologist Arthur Saniotis from Cihan University-Erbil, propose that humanity's success in reducing external selection pressures may have weakened its evolutionary trajectory. A June 2025 paper by Saniotis and his team suggested that future medical and technological enhancements might be necessary to counteract "deleterious effects to human phenotypes due to relaxed natural selection." This idea, however, raises questions and has historical connections to eugenics.

Waring concluded that if cultural inheritance continues to dominate, the future of individuals and the species may increasingly depend on the strength and adaptability of societies.

Waring and Wood's paper was published in Bioscience.