Topics in biological and cultural evolution: Topics in biological and cultural evolution Lecture Four Conformity from an Evolutionary Perspective


Emotions and evolutionFinal remarks: Emotions and evolution Final remarks Emotional capacities are shaped by situations that occurred repeatedly in the course of evolution that were important to fitness. Attacks by predators, threats of exclusion from the group, opportunities for mating were frequent and important enough to have shaped special patterns of preparedness, such as panic, social fear, and sexual arousal (Nesse and Williams, 1997)


Overview of LectureTheories and Folk Sayings: Overview of Lecture Theories and Folk Sayings Blood is thicker than water Do unto others as you would have them do to you/You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours When in Rome do as the Romans do


Different approaches to the study of human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective: Different approaches to the study of human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective Evolutionary Psychology Gene-culture coevolutionary theory


Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour: Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour Blood is thicker than water We cooperate with people because we are related to them (Kin Selection Theory Hamilton 1964) Test of kin selection theory


Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour: Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour Do unto others as you would have them do to you We cooperate with people because we expect them to cooperate with us in return (Reciprocal Altruism Theory Trivers 1971)


Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour: Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour Prisoner’s Dilemma Game Test of reciprocal altruism theory


Prisoner’s Dilemma Game: Prisoner’s Dilemma Game What you do Cooperate Defect Cooperate What I do Defect Condition: Average Temptation + sucker’s payoff must not exceed the Reward


Prisoner’s Dilemma Game: Prisoner’s Dilemma Game The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game (PDG) has been used within psychology from the 1960s onwards and has influenced the thinking of evolutionary psychologists e.g. Cosmides and Tooby (1992) The PDG is useful when thinking about repeated interactions between two individuals but………………….


When we look at large scale human cooperative behaviour we see an evolutionary puzzle: When we look at large scale human cooperative behaviour we see an evolutionary puzzle Why do groups of unrelated individuals cooperate on a large scale? Why do individuals sacrifice their lives for someone that they have never met before and to whom they are unrelated?


Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour: Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour When in Rome do as the Romans do We cooperate with/copy people because it is the most adaptive behaviour in certain situations (Conformist transmission model Boyd and Richerson 1985) Test of conformist transmission model


Past research on conformity: Past research on conformity Behavioural conformity Allport (1924, 1934) Conformity and perceptual judgement Asch (1951,1962) Gerard, Wilhelmy & Conolley (1968) Crowd behaviour Milgram, Bickman & Berkowitz (1969)


Theoretical models of social influence from social psychology: Theoretical models of social influence from social psychology Latané’s social impact model (1981) Tanford and Penrod’s Social Influence model (1984) Later dynamic social impact models


A theoretical model of conformity from an evolutionary perspective : A theoretical model of conformity from an evolutionary perspective Boyd and Richerson’s Conformist Transmission Model (1985)


Conformity in the computer laboratory: Conformity in the computer laboratory 378 first year psychology undergraduates in their first computer practical 23% of ‘participants’ copied the behaviour Proportion but not group size was a significant predictor of conformity


The problem of group size: The problem of group size Is there something qualitatively different about a group of 3 compared to a group of 5? A partial replication of Milgram et al’s (1969) drawing power of crowds experiment


Conformity to the anonymous crowd: Conformity to the anonymous crowd 476 people taking part in clinical psychology experiments also (unknowingly) took part in a ‘date signing behaviour’ study Proportion but not group size was a significant predictor of conformity


Methodology: Methodology Field studies Asch and Milgram Ethics


Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour: Conformity and Cooperative Behaviour Blood is thicker than water We cooperate with people because we are related to them (Kin Selection Theory Hamilton 1964) Do unto others as you would have them do to you We cooperate with people because we expect them to cooperate with us in return (Reciprocal Altruism Theory Trivers 1971) When in Rome do as the Romans do We cooperate with/copy people because it is the most adaptive behaviour in certain situations (Conformist transmission model Boyd and Richerson 1985)