FREE ESSAY ON CONFORMITY

CONFORMITY

The more people already agree upon or share a particular idea, the more easily a newcomer
will in turn be be converted to that idea, and the more difficult it will be for one
already converted to reject that idea
This conformity pressure can be explained by the fact that the newcomer will be subjected
to expressions of the idea more often, and will more likely get in trouble if he
expresses dissonant idea (Heylighen, 1992). Though conformity pressure is mostly
irrational, often rejecting knowledge that is adequate because it contradicts already
established beliefs, its alternative formulation, consensus, is a criterion of the
INVARIAN.html type, since it implies that a belief does not vary over individuals. More
invariant rules are more reliable predictors, and consensus, in the sense where people
agree about an idea because they independently came to the same conclusion, can be viewed
as a quite rational criterion for selecting knowledge (cf. Kelley, 1967). 
From another point of view, conformity is an expression of MEMES.html selfishness
(Heylighen, 1992). As memory space is limited and cognitive dissonance tends to be
avoided, it is difficult for inconsistent memes to have the same carriers. Cognitively
dissonant memes are in a similar relation of competition as alleles: genes that compete
for the same location in the genome. Memes that induce behavior in their carriers that
tends to eliminate rival memes will be more fit, since they will have more resources for
themselves. The concrete result is that a group of carriers with different memes will
tend towards homogeneity, resulting from the imposition of the majority meme and
elimination of all non-conforming memes. 
Conformity is a necessary criterion for the COOPEVOL.html, that is, for the selection of
behaviors that are COLLUTIL.html, without being individually useful. As CAMPBEL.html
emphasizes, group selection often runs counter to the more powerful and direct force of
individual selection. Therefore, he proposes a mechanism that suppresses individually
selfish deviations from these collective beliefs: conformist transmission. As illustrated
by the mathematical model of Boyd and Richerson (1985), all other things being equal, it
seems evolutionarily optimal for subjects to adopt the majority or plurality belief
rather than a minority idea. Thus, already popular ideas tend to become even more
popular, leading to an eventual homogeneity of belief within a closely interacting group.

Bibliography
References: 
? ? Heylighen f. (1992):
?ftp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/Papers_Heylighen/Memes&Cooperation.txt,?http://a-ten.com/joi/index.html,
Vol 2, # 4, pp 70-84. 
??? Heylighen F. (1993):
?ftp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/Papers_Heylighen/Knowledge_Selection_Criteria.txt,
in: Proc. 13th Int. Congress on Cybernetics (Association Internat. de Cybernetique,
Namur), p. 529. 
? Heylighen F. (1997): papers/knowledgeselectors.html, Evolution and Cognition 3:1, p.
63-67.