Conformist transmission biases learners toward adopting a population’s most frequent cultural traits.
Evidence
Conformist transmission implies that individuals possess a propensity to preferentially adopt the cultural traits that are most frequent in the population. Under conformist transmission, the frequency of a trait among the individuals within the population provides information about the trait’s adaptiveness. This psychological bias makes individuals more likely to adopt the more common traits than they would under unbiased cultural transmission. Unbiased transmission may be conceptualized in several ways. For example, if an individual copies a randomly selected individual from the population, then the transmission is unbiased. If individuals copy their parents or just their mother, then transmission also is unbiased. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 23
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines conformist transmission as distinct from unbiased transmission (random copying, or parent/mother copying).
- ADDENDUM: This is the foundational technical model behind the coercion-vulnerability argument — directly relevant to that piece.
- XREF: connects to: Conformist transmission means overcopying the majority beyond its base rate — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 180; Learners suppress causal reasoning when cultural transmission supplies ready-made models — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 375; Learners adopt causally opaque cultural practices through implicit trust in accumulated wisdom — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 376 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Conformist transmission skews trait frequency toward the population majority beyond unbiased copying.
#expands(0.96) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 124 - Conformist transmission increases behavioral adoption odds above population frequency.
#expands(0.88) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 34 - Migration among subpopulations weakens reliance on social learning but barely affects conformist transmission strength.
#qualifies(0.78) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 84 - Conformist transmission occurs across many social-learning species.
#expands(0.72) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 1122