# Emergent social transmission of model-based representations without inference

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.05777 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.05777/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 4 of its 64 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Apr 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Recurrent World Models Facilitate Policy Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.01999/) (2018)
- [From Curiosity to Competence: How World Models Interact with the Dynamics of Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.08210/) (2025)
- [Flexible social inference facilitates targeted social learning when rewards are not observable](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00869/) (2022)
- [MoVEInt: Mixture of Variational Experts for Learning Human-Robot Interactions from Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07636/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

How do people acquire rich, flexible knowledge about their environment from others despite limited cognitive capacity? Humans are often thought to rely on computationally costly mentalizing, such as inferring others' beliefs. In contrast, cultural evolution emphasizes that behavioral transmission can be supported by simple social cues. Using reinforcement learning simulations, we show how minimal social learning can indirectly transmit higher-level representations. We simulate a na"ive agent searching for rewards in a reconfigurable environment, learning either alone or by observing an expert - crucially, without inferring mental states. Instead, the learner heuristically selects actions or boosts value representations based on observed actions. Our results demonstrate that these cues bias the learner's experience, causing its representation to converge toward the expert's. Model-based learners benefit most from social exposure, showing faster learning and more expert-like representations. These findings show how cultural transmission can arise from simple, non-mentalizing processes exploiting asocial learning mechanisms.