Conformist Transmission

Abstract

Abstract Conformist transmission is a transmission bias, or social learning strategy, that disproportionately favours popular cultural variants. Over the past 40 years it has received a great deal of attention, both theoretical and empirical. Here the authors provide an overview of the current state of this literature, including what conformist transmission is; how it relates to other similar terms; how it can be operationalized mathematically; its adaptive value; the impact it has upon cultural evolutionary dynamics; and the evidence for and against it in humans and other species. The authors conclude by identifying gaps in current theory and limitations of experimental work. In particular, the authors emphasize the need for theory that accounts for demonstrators with inconsistent preferences and the need for empirical work to carefully distinguish between conformist tendencies and conformist evolutionary dynamics.