Evidence for weak or linear conformity but not for hyper-conformity in an everyday social learning context.
Evidence for weak or linear conformity but not for hyper-conformity in an everyday social learning context.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0030970
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Whiten A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Claidière N;Bowler M;Whiten A
从众被认为是文化进化的重要力量，因为它有可能稳定大群体中的合作，增强群体选择，从而解释独特的人类行为。然而，这种从众行为对文化和生物进化的影响将在很大程度上取决于个体受到替代行为选择频率影响的方式。例如，理论模型表明，只有我们所说的“过度从众”，即一种夸大的倾向，表现出在其他个体中最常见的行为，才能增加群体内的同质性和群体间的多样性。然而，根据经验，很少有实验能够解决目睹的行为频率如何影响行为。因此，我们进行了一项实验来测试人类在自然情况下是否存在一致性。动物园展览的参观者被邀请在 A5 卡上写下或画出问题的答案，并有可能赢得一份小奖品。我们控制了访客可见的现有文字与图画的比例，并测量了提交的书面卡片的比例。我们发现显示的文本比例对答案中文本的比例有强烈而显着的影响，从而证明了社交学习。我们表明，这种效应近似线性，可能有一个小的、弱的顺从成分，但没有超顺从成分。因此，本实验为人类在非常自然的环境中线性顺从提供了证据。
Conformity is thought to be an important force in cultural evolution because it has the potential to stabilize cooperation in large groups, potentiate group selection and thus explain uniquely human behaviors. However, the effects of such conformity on cultural and biological evolution will depend much on the way individuals are influenced by the frequency of alternative behavioral options witnessed. Theoretical modeling has suggested that only what we refer to as ‘hyper-conformity’, an exaggerated tendency to perform the most frequent behavior witnessed in other individuals, is able to increase within-group homogeneity and between-group diversity, for instance. Empirically however, few experiments have addressed how the frequency of behavior witnessed affects behavior. Accordingly we performed an experiment to test for the presence of conformity in a natural situation with humans. Visitors to a Zoo exhibit were invited to write or draw answers to questions on A5 cards and potentially win a small prize. We manipulated the proportion of existing writings versus drawings visible to visitors and measured the proportion of written cards submitted. We found a strong and significant effect of the proportion of text displayed on the proportion of text in the answers, thus demonstrating social learning. We show that this effect is approximately linear, with potentially a small, weak-conformist component but no hyper-conformist one. The present experiment therefore provides evidence for linear conformity in humans in a very natural context.
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影响因子：
4.4
作者：
Coultas, JC
通讯作者：
Coultas, JC
影响因子：
2.5
作者：
Galef, Bennett G.;Whiskin, Elain E.
通讯作者：
Whiskin, Elain E.
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Paciotti, B
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作者：
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通讯作者：
Baum, William
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--
作者：
Macdonald, C.;Whiten, A.
通讯作者：
Whiten, A.