Now imagine that A and B represent something that might give a survival advantage — does the entire population conform? Not necessarily. Denton and her colleagues used computer models to see how complicating factors like migration and sexual selection affect the ratio of conformists to anti-conformists.
They found that people might switch — conforming when something was reasonably popular but becoming an anti-conformist if it became too popular. When confronted with lots of pictures of men with beards, women tended to find clean shaven faces more attractive Credit: Michal Bialozej. Are there any situations in which being anti-conformist has its advantages? Perhaps in a new environment, or an environment that has dramatically changed, only a small number of individuals will have the best trait.
Take the colourful male guppy. Their long, bright fins appeal to female guppies, each of whom has her own particular colour and pattern preference. As such, there's no one "ideal" male guppy. It also means that averageness is not an advantage. It is better to be a unique guppy and hope you are just right for someone. In zoology this is called polymorphism.
Novelty has a reproductive advantage for these little fish. In scenarios where novelty isn't sexually favoured, where instead one specific trait is deemed an ideal there are opportunities for organisms to exploit this bias by faking it.
Take the comically clawed fiddler crab. Male fiddler crabs have one enormous fighting claw with which they fend off rival males. Female fiddler crabs are attracted to males with the largest claws, as they have the best fighting ability.
If a male fiddler crab loses his claw in a fight, he is able to regrow an almost identical one. This new claw is the same length, but has less mass and is a less effective weapon than the original.
Female fiddler crabs only choose their mate based on the length, and not the mass , of the male's claw, so they are unable to truly tell which are the best fighters. If the male crab lost his claw, there are probably better fighters around — but she wouldn't be able to tell. Claw length is the key trait that matters to a female fiddler crab, so it's a bit like men only looking for a certain waist-to-hip ratio, or women focusing only on height.
Baby names can come in and out of fashion in a way that suggests we have a strong anti-conformist streak Credit: Michal Bialozej. Some sneaky fiddler crab males are then manipulating the focused attention of the females to disguise the fact that they are losers. Where there is such reliance on one cue to determine quality it becomes possible to act dishonestly.
Where novelty is valued, it's much harder to be dishonest, says Dixson. How is novelty valued in humans? For men, thick brows, facial hair and square jaws are an example of a phenotype that signals for high testosterone levels. In an evolutionary sense, it is an advantage for women, like with the fiddler crabs, to mate with the strongest, most capable men.
The recent popularity of beards among men has been used to coin the term " peak beard ", which suggests facial hair might be on its way out. Is the same anti-conformist bias the driver behind peak beard? By Kate Ferguson. Search Search for:. About Contact Privacy Policy. Facebook Instagram Pinterest. What's the deal? Share this article now! Have something to add? Jump to the comments. Most Popular Stories 1. I can help you. Please visit my coaching page and book private, one-on-one coaching with me.
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