Popularity Feedback Constrains Innovation in Cultural Markets
For researchers studying cultural evolution and innovation, this work demonstrates that popularity feedback loops constrain collective creativity, with implications for online platforms and creative industries.
In a large-scale online experiment (N=1,008), exposing popularity ratings in cultural markets reduced cultural diversity and slowed innovation, delaying aesthetic improvements by 20% compared to no-feedback conditions.
Real-world creative processes ranging from art to science rely on social feedback-loops between selection and creation. Yet, the effects of popularity feedback on collective creativity remain poorly understood. We investigate how popularity ratings influence cultural dynamics in a large-scale online experiment where participants ($N = 1\,008$) iteratively \textit{select} images from evolving markets and \textit{produce} their own modifications. Results show that exposing the popularity of images reduces cultural diversity and slows innovation, delaying aesthetic improvements. Popularity feedback is associated with changes to both selection and creative stages. During selection, popularity information triggers cumulative advantage, with participants preferentially building upon popular images, reducing diversity. During creation, participants make less disruptive changes, and are more likely to expand existing visual patterns. Feedback loops in cultural markets thus not only shape selection, but also, directly or indirectly, the form and direction of cultural innovation.