On her book Copycats and Contrarians: Why We Follow Others... and When We Don't
Cover Interview of May 01, 2019
In a nutshell
Copycats and Contrarians takes on the idea, promulgated by some economists, that humans are
selfish and independently-minded creatures, who use complex mathematical rules to
solve problems. This book argues that we are also social animals, and our
instincts to follow, herd, and copy others are deeply ingrained.
So, is herding mindless and stupid? When we
suspect that people around us know more than we do, then following them is
common sense. We may join long restaurant queues but avoid empty restaurants.
Social media reviews may help us to choose our holidays. Policy-makers, who release
social information about others’ choices, may encourage us to be more
responsible about everything from energy consumption to organ donation.
But imitation is also the product of
ancient impulses and instincts. It evolved in our ancestors, enabling them to
survive harsh natural environments. When food and resources were scarce and
threats were ever-present, our ancestors followed others around them because
they might have had better information about where to find food or water. Or,
as part of a group, they would find safety from predators and environmental
threats. Over the course of human history, however, civilizations have grown, technologies
have become ever more sophisticated, and our herding tendencies now seem more
maladaptive than effective survival strategies.
Copycats and Contrarians explores how, today, we face a delicate, fragile balance of
individual, group, and social interests. In the modern world, following others sometimes
works well. But other times it generates perversions. The Internet has given
mob-leaders a power to manipulate crowds that is unrivalled in human history.
The political tensions around the UK’s vote to leave the EU and the US election
of Donald Trump have both been driven by rapid shifts in herd opinions. These
shifts are catalyzed by online gossip, twitter trolls, and false news that
speed along globalized social media channels. In computerized financial markets,
too, herding develops quickly and precipitates large and destabilizing
speculative bubbles, including flash crashes on futures and currency exchanges.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
In a nutshell
Copycats and Contrarians takes on the idea, promulgated by some economists, that humans are selfish and independently-minded creatures, who use complex mathematical rules to solve problems. This book argues that we are also social animals, and our instincts to follow, herd, and copy others are deeply ingrained.
So, is herding mindless and stupid? When we suspect that people around us know more than we do, then following them is common sense. We may join long restaurant queues but avoid empty restaurants. Social media reviews may help us to choose our holidays. Policy-makers, who release social information about others’ choices, may encourage us to be more responsible about everything from energy consumption to organ donation.
But imitation is also the product of ancient impulses and instincts. It evolved in our ancestors, enabling them to survive harsh natural environments. When food and resources were scarce and threats were ever-present, our ancestors followed others around them because they might have had better information about where to find food or water. Or, as part of a group, they would find safety from predators and environmental threats. Over the course of human history, however, civilizations have grown, technologies have become ever more sophisticated, and our herding tendencies now seem more maladaptive than effective survival strategies.
Copycats and Contrarians explores how, today, we face a delicate, fragile balance of individual, group, and social interests. In the modern world, following others sometimes works well. But other times it generates perversions. The Internet has given mob-leaders a power to manipulate crowds that is unrivalled in human history. The political tensions around the UK’s vote to leave the EU and the US election of Donald Trump have both been driven by rapid shifts in herd opinions. These shifts are catalyzed by online gossip, twitter trolls, and false news that speed along globalized social media channels. In computerized financial markets, too, herding develops quickly and precipitates large and destabilizing speculative bubbles, including flash crashes on futures and currency exchanges.