Conformist transmission means copying the commonest behavior more than its frequency warrants

Evidence

By systematically varying r, the accuracy of environmental information, m, the migration rate, e, the degree of environmental stability, and n, the number of subpopulations, we have learned several important things about the evolution of social learning and conformist transmission. First, the degree of reliance on social learning (L) depends on strongly on the accuracy of environmental information (r) and the frequency of environmental fluctuations (1 2 e). The evolution of high values of L requires low-accuracy environmental information (r ø 0.5) and infrequent environmental shifts (e ø 1.0). In contrast, conformist transmission evolves to nearly maximum strength (D ø 1) over a much wider range of parameter combinations than does a strong reliance on social learning, provided there is at least a small amount of migration. In fact, although extreme variations in these parameters will prevent the evolution of conformist transmission, the set of parameter values under which conformist transmission fails to evolve is surprisingly small. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 65 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

One place has 40 diners, six have 10 diners, and three are empty, except for the waitstaff. If you would pick the restaurant with 40 people (out of the 100 you’ve observed) more than 40% of the time then you are using conformist transmission—you are strongly inclined to copy the most common trait—the majority or the plurality. … Evolutionary models, which are built to mathematically capture the logic of natural selection, predict that learners ought to use what’s called conformist transmission to tackle a variety of learning problems. As long as individual learning, intuitions, direct experience, and other cultural learning mechanisms tend to produce adaptive practices, beliefs, and motivations, then conformist transmission can help learners aggregate the information that is distributed across a group. For example, suppose long experience fishing will tend to cause anglers to prefer the blood knot to other potential knots (for connecting monofilament line) because the blood knot is objectively the best. However, individual experiences will vary, so suppose that long experience alone leads to only a 50% chance of an angler converging on the blood knot, a 30% chance of using the fisherman’s knot, and a 20% chance of using one of five other knots. A conformist learner can exploit this situation and jump directly to the blood knot without experience. Thus, the wisdom of crowds is built into our psychology. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 179 (#expands, via linked claim)

This model makes a number of unrealistic simplifying assumptions in order to focus clearly on the effects of a temporally varying environment on the evolution of conformist transmission. The effects of relaxing some of these assumptions have been studied elsewhere (Boyd and Richerson 1985, 1989). Increasing the number of individuals available to imitate or increasing the number of traits increases the strength of the conformist effect at evolutionary equilibrium. … Other assumptions are essential to the structure of the model. For example, if individuals can learn, and facultatively use, the optimal behavior in each possible environment, then the central adaptive problem disappears, and there is no need for social learning. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 63 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Conformist transmission evolves robustly across far more conditions than heavy social learning does — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 65; Conformist transmission lets learners aggregate dispersed wisdom rapidly — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 179; No flexible-learning scenario eliminates the adaptive need for conformity. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 63

Related

• Conformist transmission lets learners aggregate dispersed wisdom rapidly (similarity 0.94)
• Conformist transmission evolves robustly across far more conditions than heavy social learning does (similarity 0.88)
• Conformist transmission occurs across many social-learning species. (similarity 0.87)
• Conformist transmission amplifies majority traits toward fixation across generations. (similarity 0.86)
• Conformist transmission is favored only when some migration exists. (similarity 0.86)
• No flexible-learning scenario eliminates the adaptive need for conformity. (similarity 0.86)
• Conformist bias evolution requires less environmental stability than social learning evolution itself. (similarity 0.85)
• Conformist transmission is favored across a broader range of conditions than mere social learning. (similarity 0.85)
• Evolutionary selection robustly favors copying the majority even when environments shift often. (similarity 0.85)
• Natural selection favors conformist transmission under a wide range of conditions, including fluctuating environments. (similarity 0.85)
• Conformist transmission biases learners toward adopting a population’s most frequent cultural traits. (similarity 0.85)
• Conformist transmission increases behavioral adoption odds above population frequency. (similarity 0.84)
• Conformist transmission stays strong even when environmental cues are highly accurate or uninformative. (similarity 0.83)
• Conformist transmission skews trait frequency toward the population majority beyond unbiased copying. (similarity 0.82)
• Conformist transmission strength is a tunable model parameter. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Conformist transmission lets learners aggregate dispersed wisdom rapidly #expands (0.75) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 179