Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness
We demonstrate that individual behaviours directed at the attainment of distinctiveness can in fact produce complete social conformity. We thus offer an unexpected generative mechanism for this central social phenomenon. Specifically, we establish that agents who have fixed needs to be distinct and...
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The Royal Society
2015-01-01
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Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.140437 |
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doaj-e2e017bf691f4b7e9926026da111eb322020-11-25T04:06:04ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032015-01-012310.1098/rsos.140437140437Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctivenessPaul E. SmaldinoJoshua M. EpsteinWe demonstrate that individual behaviours directed at the attainment of distinctiveness can in fact produce complete social conformity. We thus offer an unexpected generative mechanism for this central social phenomenon. Specifically, we establish that agents who have fixed needs to be distinct and adapt their positions to achieve distinctiveness goals, can nevertheless self-organize to a limiting state of absolute conformity. This seemingly paradoxical result is deduced formally from a small number of natural assumptions and is then explored at length computationally. Interesting departures from this conformity equilibrium are also possible, including divergence in positions. The effect of extremist minorities on these dynamics is discussed. A simple extension is then introduced, which allows the model to generate and maintain social diversity, including multimodal distinctiveness distributions. The paper contributes formal definitions, analytical deductions and counterintuitive findings to the literature on individual distinctiveness and social conformity.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.140437optimal distinctivenesssocial influenceopinion dynamicsanti-conformity |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Paul E. Smaldino Joshua M. Epstein |
spellingShingle |
Paul E. Smaldino Joshua M. Epstein Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness Royal Society Open Science optimal distinctiveness social influence opinion dynamics anti-conformity |
author_facet |
Paul E. Smaldino Joshua M. Epstein |
author_sort |
Paul E. Smaldino |
title |
Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness |
title_short |
Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness |
title_full |
Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness |
title_fullStr |
Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness |
title_full_unstemmed |
Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness |
title_sort |
social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
series |
Royal Society Open Science |
issn |
2054-5703 |
publishDate |
2015-01-01 |
description |
We demonstrate that individual behaviours directed at the attainment of distinctiveness can in fact produce complete social conformity. We thus offer an unexpected generative mechanism for this central social phenomenon. Specifically, we establish that agents who have fixed needs to be distinct and adapt their positions to achieve distinctiveness goals, can nevertheless self-organize to a limiting state of absolute conformity. This seemingly paradoxical result is deduced formally from a small number of natural assumptions and is then explored at length computationally. Interesting departures from this conformity equilibrium are also possible, including divergence in positions. The effect of extremist minorities on these dynamics is discussed. A simple extension is then introduced, which allows the model to generate and maintain social diversity, including multimodal distinctiveness distributions. The paper contributes formal definitions, analytical deductions and counterintuitive findings to the literature on individual distinctiveness and social conformity. |
topic |
optimal distinctiveness social influence opinion dynamics anti-conformity |
url |
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.140437 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT paulesmaldino socialconformitydespiteindividualpreferencesfordistinctiveness AT joshuamepstein socialconformitydespiteindividualpreferencesfordistinctiveness |
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1724432624400728064 |