The Cost of Conformity
An information cascade occurs when it is most optimal for an individual to follow the behavior of other individuals without regard to his own information. This can be extended to the concept of people blindly “jumping on a bandwagon.” For instance, in 1935, Solomon Asch conducted an experiment regarding conformity; the subject signs up for a psychology experiment and is seated with other “participants” at a table in a small room. The experimenter explains that the experiment concerns visual judgment, and places two cards in front of the subject. The card on the left has one vertical line, and the card on the right has three lines that vary in length. The subject has to match the two lines that are the same length. On some occasions, the other “participants” choose the wrong line. It is apparent that the line that they chose is wrong, but their decision was unanimous. The true subject, on average, conformed to the blatantly incorrect opinion 32% of the time. It is worrisome that the human need for conformity can cause 1 in 3 people to disregard their obviously correct opinion to conform with the masses.
In class, the incorrect information cascades that were discussed mainly concerned guessing the color of the majority of marbles in an urn. However, imagine if these incorrect cascades translated to more tangible concepts. Fashion trends are an incredibly interesting way to observe information cascades, because perception of what is considered “fashionable” can be incredibly subjective, yet fads come and go. Bell-bottom jeans, grunge style, crop tops and flared pants, and chokers are all examples of fashion items that people in 2014 nostalgically laugh at, however, many women today regretfully confess to owning all of these items. Even though the perception of the style today is negative, all of these kinds of items were incredibly popular. So what was the drive behind the popularity of these items? One could argue that fashion trends are the product of information cascades; top designers produce new and innovative items, which other designers copy. Consumers, seeing that designers are producing such distinct items acknowledge that there is a new trend of the season, and then increase the demand for these fad items. Even though people can independently say that they are not attracted to the items, they still owned them, because of an information cascade that says that the somewhat unattractive fad items were in style at the time.
Fashion trends are a very mild example of the cost of conformity, but imagine of how incorrect information cascades can affect the well being of society. Extending the fashion trend example, one can even argue that information cascades and the human need for conformity catalyzed social detrimental movements like Social Darwinism and Fascism as well.
Sources:
http://www.thedaonline.com/opinion/columns/article_ae3f7312-450d-11e3-b139-001a4bcf6878.html
http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/social/asch_conformity.html