Humans shift collective preferences among arbitrary practices for no practical reason

Evidence

These peculiarities of human behavior can be summarized in a broader enigma I like to call the Grand Mystery of Culture: Why do humans collectively prefer certain practices, and then, years later, move on to alternatives for no practical reason? As the undertaker Mr. Omer quips in David Copperfield, “Fashions are like human beings. They come in, nobody knows when, why, or how; and they go out, nobody knows when, why, or how.” — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 14

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the book’s organizing question — ‘Grand Mystery of Culture’.
• XREF: connects to: People change their own attitudes when ingroup members behave inconsistently. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 338; Spontaneous social order arises from uncoordinated individual choices without conscious design — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 748; Interdependent individual actions produce collective outcomes no one deliberately chose — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 817 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Humans rationalize arbitrary customs post hoc rather than recognizing their contingency #expands (0.85)
• Shared arbitrary practices constitute a group’s collective identity #expands (0.80) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 137
• Interdependent individual actions produce collective outcomes no one deliberately chose #expands (0.78) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 817
• Spontaneous social order arises from uncoordinated individual choices without conscious design #expands (0.75) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 748
• People follow adaptive taboos without any shared causal understanding of why #expands (0.74) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 332
• People change their own attitudes when ingroup members behave inconsistently. #qualifies (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 338