| 1. |
- Coultas, Julie C., et al.
(author)
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Conformity : Definitions, Types, and Evolutionary Grounding
- 2015
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In: Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology. - New York : Springer. - 9783319126975 - 9783319126968 ; , s. 189-202
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Conformity research in social psychology spans a century, but researchers have only adopted an evolutionary perspective in the past 25 years. This change has been driven by gene-culture coevolutionary models and research on nonhuman animals. In this chapter, we outline why there is a credible basis for an evolutionary explanation for widespread behavioral conformity in humans. However, we caution that not all conformity in humans is the same because conforming in a perceptual judgment task in the laboratory (as per the Asch paradigm) is not equivalent to being an unwitting participant in a behavioral field study. Moreover, conformity has not been consistently defined across research disciplines, which hampers a valid assessment of its evolutionary origins. Theoretical models within social psychology and the study of gene-culture coevolution are valuable tools in the quest for evolutionary explanations of conformist behavior; they have utilized gained insights while inspiring simulations and empirical tests. We propose the idea of incorporating individuals’ habit adherence into the models to advance the study of conformity. Conformity is a powerful force in human decision making and is best understood from an evolutionary perspective.
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| 2. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(author)
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Are people really conformist-biased? : An empirical test and a new mathematical model
- 2009
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In: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. - 0737-4828. ; 7:1, s. 5-21
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- According to an influential theory in cultural evolution, within-group similarity of culture is explained by a human conformist-bias, which is a hypothesized evolved predisposition to preferentially follow a member of the majority when acquiring ideas and behaviours. However, this notion has little support from social psychological research. In fact, a major theory in social psychology (Latan and Wolf (1981) argues for what is in effect a nonconformist-bias: by analogy to standard psychophysics they predict minority sources of influence to have relatively greater impact than majority sources. Here we present a new mathematical model and an experiment on social influence, both specifically designed to test these competing predictions. The results are in line with nonconformism. Finally, we discuss within-group similarity and suggest that it is not a general phenomenon but must be studied trait by trait.
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| 3. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(author)
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Bidirectional associations between descriptive and injunctive norms
- 2015
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In: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. - : Elsevier BV. - 0749-5978 .- 1095-9920. ; 129, s. 59-69
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Modern research on social norms makes an important distinction between descriptive norms (how people commonly behave) and injunctive norms (what one is morally obligated to do). Here we propose that this distinction is far from clear in the cognition of social norms. In a first study, using the implicit association test, the concepts of common and moral were found to be strongly associated. Some implications of this automatic common-moral association were investigated in a subsequent series of experiments: Our participants tended to make explicit inferences from descriptive norms to injunctive norms and vice versa; they tended to mix up descriptive and injunctive concepts in recall tasks; and frequency information influenced participants' own moral judgments. We conclude by discussing how the common-moral association could play a role in the dynamics of social norms.
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| 4. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(author)
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Corpses, maggots, poodles and rats : Emotional selection operating in three phases of cultural transmission of urban legends
- 2014
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In: Journal of Cognition and Culture. - : Brill. - 1567-7095 .- 1568-5373. ; 14:1-2, s. 1-26
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In one conception of cultural evolution, the evolutionary success of cultural units that are transmitted from individual to individual is determined by forces of cultural selection. Here we argue that it is helpful to distinguish between several distinct phases of the transmission process in which cultural selection can operate, such as a choose-toreceive phase, an encode-and-retrieve phase, and a choose-to-transmit phase. Here we focus on emotional selection in cultural transmission of urban legends, which has previously been shown to operate in the choose-to-transmit phase. In a series of experiments we studied serial transmission of stories based on urban legends manipulated to be either high or low on disgusting content. Results supported emotional selection operating in all three phases of cultural transmission. Thus, the prevalence of disgusting urban legends in North America may be explained by emotional selection through a multitude of pathways.
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| 5. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(author)
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Corpses, maggots, poodles and rats : A content bias for disgust in three phases of cultural transmission
- 2014
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In: Journal of Cognition and Culture. - : Brill. - 1567-7095 .- 1568-5373. ; 14:1-2, s. 1-26
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- AbstractIn one conception of cultural evolution, the evolutionary success of cultural units that are transmitted from individual to individual is determined by forces of cultural selection. Here we argue that it is helpful to distinguish between several distinct phases of the transmission process in which cultural selection can operate, such as a choose-to-receive phase, an encode-and-retrieve phase, and a choose-to-transmit phase. Here we focus on emotional selection in cultural transmission of urban legends, which has previously been shown to operate in the choose-to-transmit phase. In a series of experiments we studied serial transmission of stories based on urban legends manipulated to be either high or low on disgusting content. Results supported emotional selection operating in all three phases of cultural transmission. Thus, the prevalence of disgusting urban legends in North America may be explained by emotional selection through a multitude of pathways.
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| 6. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, et al.
(author)
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Cross-Cultural Differences in Emotional Selection on Transmission of Information
- 2016
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In: Journal of Cognition and Culture. - : Brill. - 1567-7095 .- 1568-5373. ; 16:1-2, s. 122-143
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research on cultural transmission among Americans has established a bias for transmitting stories that have disgusting elements (such as exposure to rats and maggots). Conceived of as a cultural evolutionary force, this phenomenon is one type of emotional selection. In a series of online studies with Americans and Indians we investigate whether there are cultural differences in emotional selection, such that the transmission process favours different kinds of content in different countries. The first study found a bias for disgusting content (rats and maggots) among Americans but not among Indians. Four subsequent studies focused on how country interacts with kind of emotional content (disgusting vs. happy surprises and good news) in reactions to transmission of stories or information. Whereas Indian participants, compared to Americans, tended to be less interested in, and excited by, transmission of stories and news involving common disgust-elicitors (like rats), the opposite pattern held for transmission of happy surprises and good news (e.g., the opening of a new public facility). We discuss various possible explanations and implications.
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| 7. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(author)
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The advantage of multiple cultural parents in the cultural transmission of stories
- 2012
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In: Evolution and human behavior. - : Elsevier BV. - 1090-5138 .- 1879-0607. ; 33:4, s. 251-259
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent mathematical modeling of repeated cultural transmission has shown that the rate at which culture is lost (due to imperfect transmission) will crucially depend on whether individuals receive transmissions from many cultural parents or only from one. However, the modeling assumptions leading up to this conclusion have so far not been empirically assessed. Here we do this for the special case of transmission chains where each individual either receives the same story twice from one cultural parent (and retransmits twice to a cultural child) or receives possibly different versions of the story from two cultural parents (and then retransmits to two cultural children). For this case, we first developed a more general mathematical model of cultural retention that takes into account the possibility of dependence of error rates between transmissions. In this model, under quite plausible assumptions, chains with two cultural parents will have superior retention of culture. This prediction was then tested in two experiments using both written and oral modes of transmission. In both cases, superior retention of culture was found in chains with two cultural parents. Estimation of model parameters indicated that error rates were not identical and independent between transmissions; instead, a primacy effect was suggested, such that the first transmission tends to have higher fidelity than the second transmission.
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| 8. |
- Eriksson, Kimmo, 1967-, et al.
(author)
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Theory of conformist social learning
- 2012
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In: Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. - : Springer-Verlag New York. - 9781441914279 ; , s. 3314-3316
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)
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