No flexible-learning scenario eliminates the adaptive need for conformity.

Evidence

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

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Conformist transmission means copying the commonest behavior more than its frequency warrants

Related

• Conformist bias evolution requires less environmental stability than social learning evolution itself. (similarity 0.88)
• Conformist transmission means copying the commonest behavior more than its frequency warrants (similarity 0.86)
• Natural selection favors conformist transmission under a wide range of conditions, including fluctuating environments. (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 0.84)
• Conformist transmission evolves robustly across far more conditions than heavy social learning does (similarity 0.84)
• Conformist transmission is favored only when some migration exists. (similarity 0.84)
• Individual learning from environmental cues does not always yield the adaptive behavior. (similarity 0.83)
• Conformist transmission strength is a tunable model parameter. (similarity 0.83)
• Conformist transmission increases behavioral adoption odds above population frequency. (similarity 0.83)
• Conformist transmission biases learners toward adopting a population’s most frequent cultural traits. (similarity 0.81)
• Conformist transmission occurs across many social-learning species. (similarity 0.81)
• Conformist transmission stays strong even when environmental cues are highly accurate or uninformative. (similarity 0.81)
• Conformism stays adaptive under rapid change though heavy social learning does not (similarity 0.80)
• Adaptive problems reduce to reading imperfect environmental cues of two kinds. (similarity 0.80)