When pondering conformity in the animal kingdom, your first question probably is what about the Trinidadian Turure River guppies? Yes, in fact these guppies have highly developed strategies that ensure that any nail sticking up is hammered down.
Specifically, they play the game theory strategy Tit-for-Tat (see Be Nice, but Not Too Nice: Game Theory Says So). When a sunfish or other predator approaches a guppy school, it’s in the group’s best interest to assess the threat—is the sunfish hungry? And so a squadron of guppy scouts approaches the predator. Guppies in the scouting party have two options: They can advance (unsafe) or they can refuse (safe).
Here’s what they do: On the first “move” a guppy will advance toward the threat. And then it’s another guppy’s turn to take the lead. As long as the others in the party advance, so too will intrepid scout #1. And so after the scouting party is initiated, guppies mimic one another’s advance/refuse patterns. This is Tit-for-Tat.
But the game has a twist. If a guppy proves especially unwilling to take its turn, the other guppies in the scouting party may reposition themselves behind the reluctant fish, thus forcing wussy-fish to pay an evolutionary price for his cowardice.
This system ensures that it’s in an individual guppy’s best interest to act in the group’s best interest.
Think about this in terms of human vaccinations. Every kid who gets poked runs a slight risk of ill effects (this risk now outweighs the risk of getting the disease itself). But it’s in the interest of the group that everyone is vaccinated. Without other incentives, game theory predicts that humans would act in their individual best interests and refuse vaccines. This is why we have the equivalent of guppy enforcers: PTAs, play groups, and peewee soccer parents whose job it is to excommunicate those who refuse vaccinations, just like the guppies pushing Cowardly Joe to the front lines of sunfish inspection.
Psy-Op: No Soap Radio
Joke: A penguin and a polar bear are sitting in a bathtub. The penguin says, “Please pass the soap.” The polar bear says, “No soap … radio!”
When you tell this joke in a group, everyone explodes in laughter. That’s because you’ve told everyone but one person to fake it. As you might’ve noticed, the joke itself is completely unfunny. What is funny is the one person who almost inevitably laughs along with the group, pretending to get it.