Primates have been shown to copy an action if they see others doing it
Animal conformity is a type of social learning—a subordinate primate does not have to be thrashed by some bruiser in order to express subordination to him; everyone else’s doing so can be sufficient. The conformity has a familiar human tinge to it. For example, a chimp is more likely to copy an action if he sees three other individuals do it once each than if one other individual does it three times.
Moreover, learning can include “cultural transmission”—in chimps, for example, this includes learning types of tool construction. Conformity relates to social and emotional contagion where, say, a primate aggressively targets an individual just because someone else is already doing so. Such contagion even works between groups. For example, among marmosets aggression in a group becomes more likely if aggressive vocalizations are heard from the neighboring group. Other primates are even subject to the social contagion of yawning.
One example of nonhuman conformity could come right out of high school. A male grouse courts a female who, alas, doesn’t feel magic in the air and rebuffs him. The researchers then make him seem like the hottest stud on the prairie—by surrounding him with some rapt, stuffed female grouse. Soon the reluctant maiden is all over him, pushing her statuesque rivals aside.
References
- Sapolsky, Robert. (2017). Behave Chapter 12. Hierarchy, Obedience, and Resistance (p. 520). New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Psychology / Social Psychology Status:☀️