Habits exist not just at the individual level, but at the social level.
I think it's helpful to think about culture as merely the sum of society level habits.
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I find it helpful to think of counter-examples where the model fails, before concluding the model is useful.
Habits -> trigger - routine - reward.
Duelling was a thing, until it wasn't. How to square this with the HRR theory?
A more powerful/useful explanation is mimesis.
Good point.
I think of mimesis as one of the forces that motivates us to perform habits. (Mimesis could even fall under self-interest, which might be a better model as it includes other motivators like convenience, safety, etc)
Do you think there are times when mimesis fails?
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Certainly! When you want to get a new societal-level behaviour going, it can be difficult to get mimesis working for you. So you use incentives first. I can see how this maps to TRR; but there are important differences.
For instance, where to intervene is a huge issue.
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HRR to me is sort of a current explanation of habits, but not really the end all be all.
A habit is simply something which an individual repeatedly does.
Culture is the result of that which a group of individuals repeatedly does.
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