Conformists and mavericks: the empirics of frequency-dependent cultural transmission

TLDR: This article conducted an experiment to see if players were conformists by separating individual and social learners and found that a subset of social learners behaved according to a classic model of conformity, while the remaining social learners did not respond to frequency information.

About: This article is published in Evolution and Human Behavior.The article was published on 2008-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 255 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Conformity & Social influence.

Figures

Fig. 1. The probability that a majority of individuals in the group P(majority opt) chooses the optimal technology as a function of the probability rt that each individual chooses the optimal technology for four different group sizes N.

Table 1 Model description, the number of estimated parameters, maximized log likelihood (ln L*), Akaike value (AICc), and Akaike weight (wi) for each of the three models fit to the social learners' data

Fig. 4. Data and theoretical predictions for social learners who were not stated conf show the proportion of social learners choosing red (lines with 95% bootstrappe individual learners choosing red. The graphs also show (lines with circles) the the maximum likelihood estimate of D. The maximum likelihood estimate for the 12 p 0.0438. For stated conformists, the estimate and standard error are 0.3805 and 0.025 account for the different theoretical predictions.

Fig. 5. The mean payoff per period versus the estimated value of D for each of the 40 social learners. D estimates are based on the model of individual fixed effects. Players who were not stated conformists are shown with open squares, while stated conformists are shown in solid circles.

Fig. 3. Functions lying within the gray area are consistent with conformity. The circles plot data from an experiment in Asch (1955, p. 6) in which the unanimous majority aligned against the experimental subject constituted a proportion of the group ranging from 1/2 to 15/16. The behavior in question is choosing a line of a different length from the reference line. The horizontal axis is the proportion of the group made up of confederates choosing a wrong line. The vertical axis shows the proportion of experimental subjects also choosing a wrong line. Only those data for which Asch provides precise numerical information are shown here.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What contributions have the authors mentioned in the paper "Conformists and mavericks: the empirics of frequency-dependent cultural transmission" ?

Conformity is more than just a tendency to follow the majority ; it involves an exaggerated tendency to follow the majority. The authors conducted an experiment to see if players were conformists by separating individual and social learners. 

Q2. What are the future works mentioned in the paper "Conformists and mavericks: the empirics of frequency-dependent cultural transmission" ?

To fully examine in the future how subjects adjust their tendency to follow the majority, its value would have to be systematically and exhaustively varied. Even so, this kind of understanding is potentially critical when addressing aggregate behavioral dynamics and the corresponding evolutionary consequences for organisms with biased cultural transmission. 

Q3. What is the main argument for conformity?

conformity can be a valuable way to make good decisions in temporally and spatially variable environments (Henrich & Boyd, 1998). 

Q4. What is the key parameter D used to evaluate the theory?

To evaluate the theory, the authors estimated the key parameter D using maximum likelihood under three different levels of assumed heterogeneity among social learners (Supplementary Material). 

Q5. What is the probability that a focal individual adopts R in the next period?

Both assume that if rtb1/2, the probability that a focal individual adopts R in the next period is greater than rt, while if rtN1/2, the probability is less than rt. 

Q6. What is the effect of regressing the proportion of individual learners choosing optimally on period?

regressing the proportion of individual learners choosing optimally on period, using the method of Newey and West (1987) to correct for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation up to Lag 3, produces a highly significant upward trend (pb.01). 

Q7. What is the role of conformity in the study of prosocial tendencies?

in conjunction with the punishment of norm violations and the imitation of success, conformity plays a critical role in the study of how prosocial tendencies could have evolved in humans via cultural group selection (Boyd, Gintis, Bowles, & Richerson, 2003; Boyd & Richerson, 1982; Fehr & Fischbacher, 2003, 2004; Fehr & Gaechter, 2002; Guererk, Irlenbusch, & Rockenback, 2006; Guzmán, RodríguezSickert, & Rowthorn, 2006; Henrich, 2004; Henrich & Boyd, 2001).