IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v22y2010i4p407-444.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emergent cultural signatures and persistent diversity: A model of conformity and consistency

Author

Listed:
  • Jenna Bednar

    (University of Michigan, USA, jbednar@umich.edu)

  • Aaron Bramson

    (University of Michigan, USA)

  • Andrea Jones-Rooy

    (University of Michigan, USA)

  • Scott Page

    (University of Michigan, USA)

Abstract

Empirical evidence demonstrates that cultures exist, they differ from one another, they’re coherent and yet diversity persists within them. In this paper, we describe a multi-dimensional model of cultural formation that produces all of these properties. Our model includes two forces: an internal desire to be consistent and social pressure to conform . When both forces operate, the society converges to a coordinated behavior that is consistent across the attributes. We find that convergence in the two-force model is slower than a pure conformity model and that a preponderance of one force over the other slows convergence, rather than hastening it. We further find that the two forces amplify small errors in individual behavior and prove capable of producing substantial persistent diversity.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenna Bednar & Aaron Bramson & Andrea Jones-Rooy & Scott Page, 2010. "Emergent cultural signatures and persistent diversity: A model of conformity and consistency," Rationality and Society, , vol. 22(4), pages 407-444, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:22:y:2010:i:4:p:407-444
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463110374501
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463110374501
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463110374501?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Redner, S., 1990. "Superdiffusion in random velocity fields," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 168(1), pages 551-560.
    2. Edward Miguel & Sebastián M. Saiegh & Shanker Satyanath, 2008. "National Cultures and Soccer Violence," NBER Working Papers 13968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Joseph Henrich, 2000. "Does Culture Matter in Economic Behavior? Ultimatum Game Bargaining among the Machiguenga of the Peruvian Amazon," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 973-979, September.
    4. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    5. Joseph Henrich, 2000. "Does culture matter in economic behavior? Ultimatum game bargaining among the machiguenga," Artefactual Field Experiments 00067, The Field Experiments Website.
    6. Bednar,Jenna, 2009. "The Robust Federation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521703963, September.
    7. Durrett, Richard & Levin, Simon A., 2005. "Can stable social groups be maintained by homophilous imitation alone?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 267-286, July.
    8. Bernheim, B Douglas, 1994. "A Theory of Conformity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 841-877, October.
    9. Hannan, Timothy H, 1979. "Expense-Preference Behavior in Banking: A Reexamination," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 891-895, August.
    10. Bednar,Jenna, 2009. "The Robust Federation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521878999, September.
    11. Timur Kuran & William H. Sandholm, 2008. "Cultural Integration and Its Discontents," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(1), pages 201-228.
    12. Wedeen, Lisa, 2002. "Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(4), pages 713-728, December.
    13. H. Peyton Young & Mary A. Burke, 2001. "Competition and Custom in Economic Contracts: A Case Study of Illinois Agriculture," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 559-573, June.
    14. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    15. James A. Kitts & Michael W. Macy & Andreas Flache, 1999. "Structural Learning: Attraction and Conformity in Task-Oriented Groups," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 129-145, July.
    16. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    17. Jenna Bednar & Scott Page, 2007. "Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 19(1), pages 65-97, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vicente Calabuig & Gonzalo Olcina & Fabrizio Panebianco, 2014. "The Dynamics of Personal Norms and the Emergence of Cultural Diversity," Discussion Papers in Economic Behaviour 0514, University of Valencia, ERI-CES.
    2. Annie Tubadji & Brian Osoba & Peter Nijkamp, 2015. "Culture-based development in the USA: culture as a factor for economic welfare and social well-being at a county level," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(3), pages 277-303, August.
    3. Grajzl, Peter & Baniak, Andrzej, 2012. "Mandating behavioral conformity in social groups with conformist members," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 479-493.
    4. Vicente Calabuig & Gonzalo Olcina & Fabrizio Panebianco, 2016. "The erosion of personal norms and cognitive dissonance," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(18), pages 1265-1268, December.
    5. Vicente Calabuig & Gonzalo Olcina & Fabrizio Panebianco, 2017. "The dynamics of personal norms and the determinants of cultural homogeneity," Rationality and Society, , vol. 29(3), pages 322-354, August.
    6. Economo, Evan & Hong, Lu & Page, Scott E., 2016. "Social structure, endogenous diversity, and collective accuracy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 212-231.
    7. Bednar, Jenna & Jones-Rooy, Andrea & Page, Scott E., 2015. "Choosing a future based on the past: Institutions, behavior, and path dependence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 312-332.
    8. Grout, Paul A. & Mitraille, Sébastien & Sonderegger, Silvia, 2015. "The costs and benefits of coordinating with a different group," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 517-535.
    9. Afiq bin Oslan, 2023. "Persistent and Self-Perpetuating Political Differences between Neighbouring Communities," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2023-19, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dunia López-Pintado & Duncan J. Watts, 2008. "Social Influence, Binary Decisions and Collective Dynamics," Rationality and Society, , vol. 20(4), pages 399-443, November.
    2. Rubin, Jared, 2014. "Centralized institutions and cascades," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 340-357.
    3. Buechel, Berno & Hellmann, Tim & Klößner, Stefan, 2015. "Opinion dynamics and wisdom under conformity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-257.
    4. Ramalingam, Abhijit, 2009. ""Endogenous" Relative Concerns: The Impact of Workers' Characteristics on Status and Pro ts in the Firm," MPRA Paper 18759, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Robin, Stéphane & Rusinowska, Agnieszka & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2014. "Ingratiation: Experimental evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 16-38.
    6. Robin Cowan & William Cowan & G.M. Peter Swann, 2004. "Waves in consumption with interdependence among consumers," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 149-177, February.
    7. Bonan, Jacopo & Battiston, Pietro & Bleck, Jaimie & LeMay-Boucher, Philippe & Pareglio, Stefano & Sarr, Bassirou & Tavoni, Massimo, 2021. "Social interaction and technology adoption: Experimental evidence from improved cookstoves in Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. Xiong, Hang & Payne, Diane & Kinsella, Stephen, 2016. "Peer effects in the diffusion of innovations: Theory and simulation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-13.
    9. Bell, Ann Maria, 2002. "Locally interdependent preferences in a general equilibrium environment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 309-333, March.
    10. Corazzini, Luca & Greiner, Ben, 2007. "Herding, social preferences and (non-)conformity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 74-80, October.
    11. Lutter, Mark, 2014. "Creative success and network embeddedness: Explaining critical recognition of film directors in Hollywood, 1900-2010," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. Nicolas Astier, 2016. "Comparative Feedbacks under Incomplete Information," Working Papers hal-01465189, HAL.
    13. Agnieszka Rusinowska & Vassili Vergopoulos, 2020. "Ingratiation and Favoritism in Organizations," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 176(3), pages 413-445.
    14. Yan Lin & Wai Fong Boh, 2020. "How different Are crowdfunders? Examining archetypes of crowdfunders," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(11), pages 1357-1370, November.
    15. Charness, Gary & Naef, Michael & Sontuoso, Alessandro, 2019. "Opportunistic conformism," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 100-134.
    16. Esther Duflo & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "The Role of Information and Social Interactions in Retirement Plan Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 815-842.
    17. Christoph Riedl & Victor P. Seidel, 2018. "Learning from Mixed Signals in Online Innovation Communities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1010-1032, December.
    18. Zafar, Basit, 2011. "An experimental investigation of why individuals conform," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 774-798, August.
    19. Alberto Bisin & Thierry Verdier, 2010. "The Economics of Cultural Transmission and Socialization," Post-Print halshs-00754788, HAL.
    20. Paolo Crosetto & Antonio Filippin, 2017. "The Sound of Others: Surprising Evidence of Conformist Behavior," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 1038-1051, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:22:y:2010:i:4:p:407-444. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.