Richard Dawkins 1978 suggests that we are built as "gene machines" and cultured as "meme machines" in his landmark book The Selfish Gene.

Daniel Dennett 1995 argues that "the Invasion of human brains by culture, in the form of memes, has created human minds." 

Collard et al 2006 compared the fit of biological and cultural data sets with that of the bifurcating tree model (that biologists use to represent the relationships of species) to examine the nature of cultural evolution.  

Currently, debate is focused on two competing hypotheses: the branching hypothesis (also known as the genetic, demic diffusion and phylogenesis hypothesis) and the blending hypothesis (also known as the cultural diffusion and ethnogenesis hypothesis). 

According to the branching hypothesis, cultural similarities and differences among human populations are primarily the result of a combination of within-group information and population fissioning. Durham 1992 suggests that there are barriers to hybridisation that separate species including language differences, ethnocentrism and intercommunity violence. The branching hypothesis predicts that the similarities and differences amongst cultures can be best represented by the type of branching tree diagram used in biology to depict the relationships among species. 

In contrast, the blending hypothesis views the relationships among human populations as a braided stream with different channels flowing into one another and then splitting again, rather than a branching tree. The basis of this view is that human groups have always interacted, with ideas, innovations, goods and cultural practices (as well as genes) constantly flowing from one community to another. This hypothesis predicts that the similarities and differences amongst cultures can be best represented by a maximally connected network known as a reticulated graph (Terrell 2001). 

In their 2006 research, Collard et al found that cultural data sets are just as "tree-like" as biological sets, as opposed to the orthodox social science position that blending processes are more important than branching processes in cultural evolution.  

They pose five possible reasons why the dominant cultural process may be branching rather than blending:

1. The archaeological record frequently demonstrates the existence of long-lasting cultural traditions with recognisable coherence despite the evidence for extensive movement of materials and artifacts across boundaries (Petrequin 1993)

2. Ethnographic work indicates that cultural transmission is often both vertical and conservative, with children learning skills from their parents with relatively little error. 

3. Psychology work suggests that humans may possess evolved cognitive mechanisms leading them to interact preferentially with individuals who are similar to themselves (Buston & Emlen 2001) and to be prejudiced against individuals from unfamiliar ethnic groups (Gil-White 2001; Schaller et al 2003). 

4. Research showing that interaction between people can lead to the emergence of barriers and distinctions where none previously existed (Barth 1969; Hodder 1982; McElreath et al 2003). 

5. Most contributions to the branching/blending debate published to date have focused on cultural evolution in specific regions of the world over short time spans rather than dealing with it as a general phenomenon. 

The Mimetic Lexicon by Glenn Grant 1990 provides the following definitions relevant in understanding how memes can cause mental disorders such as cult dependency, depression, shared delusional disorders (folie au deux) and anxiety disorders:

meme: (pron. `meem') A contagious information pattern that replicates by parasitically infecting human minds and altering their behavior, causing them to propagate the pattern. (Term coined by Dawkins, by analogy with "gene".) Individual slogans, catch-phrases, melodies, icons, inventions, and fashions are typical memes. An idea or information pattern is not a meme until it causes someone to replicate it, to repeat it to someone else. All transmitted knowledge is memetic. (Wheelis, quoted in Hofstadter.) (See meme-complex).

meme-complex: A set of mutually-assisting memes which have co-evolved a symbiotic relationship. Religious and political dogmas, social movements, artistic styles, traditions and customs, chain letters, paradigms, languages, etc. are meme-complexes. Also called an m-plex, or scheme (Hofstadter). Types of co-memes commonly found in a scheme are called the: bait; hook; threat; and vaccime. A successful scheme commonly has certain attributes: wide scope (a paradigm that explains much); opportunity for the carriers to participate and contribute; conviction of its self-evident truth (carries Authority); offers order and a sense of place, helping to stave off the dread of meaninglessness. (Wheelis, quoted by Hofstadter.)

exo-toxic: Dangerous to others. Highly exo-toxic memes promote the destruction of persons other than their hosts, particularly those who are carriers of rival memes. (Such as: Nazism, the Inquisition, Pol Pot.) (See meme-allergy.) (GMG) 

mimicry: An infection strategy in which a meme attempts to imitate the semiotics of another successful meme. Such as: pseudo-science (Creationism, UFOlogy); pseudo-rebelliousness (Heavy Metal); subversion by forgery (Situationist detournement). (GMG) 

memeoid, or memoid: A person "whose behavior is so strongly influenced by a [meme] that their own survival becomes inconsequential in their own minds." (Henson) (Such as: Kamikazes, Shiite terrorists, Jim Jones followers, any military personnel). hosts and membots are not necessarily memeoids. (See auto-toxic; exo-toxic.)

cult: A sociotype of an auto-toxic meme-complex, composed of membots and/or memeoids. (GMG) Characteristics of cults include: self-isolation of the infected group (or at least new recruits); brainwashing by repetitive exposure (inducing dependent mental states); genetic functions discouraged (through celibacy, sterilization, devalued family) in favor of replication (proselytizing); and leader-worship ("personality cult"). (Henson.)

 

There is evidence that memes can cause harm as a result of mass communications and new technology.  In a study of 39,000 people in 9 studies, at 5 global locations, youth were found to be more likely than their elders to suffer from major depressive disorder, especially in higher economically developed countries.  Memes may cause harm through the increased competition and unreachable goals promulgated via mass communications and the disintegration of families & communities that results from new technologies such as the Internet. The hypothesis is that our traits and archetypal propensities were selected from generations of living in tribal societies not complex modern societies with an overwhelming amount of information and messages, which undermines security, deflates the ego, interferes with face to face interactions and causes confusion and emotional dysfunction.  

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Citation suggestion: Dr Gary Galambos, Meme Disorders, Evolutionary Psychiatry Interest Group Sydney Australia (http://www.ep.org.au/models/dis_meme.htm) [date accessed]

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