How Conformity Drives Social Trends | Kaleda Denton | TEDxNewEngland

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What drives large-scale social changes like trends, fads, and collective behavior? Two powerful forces are conformity and anti-conformity: the desire to fit in and the urge to stand out. By modeling these individual-level choices and scaling them up to the population level, we can begin to understand how small decisions accumulate in surprising ways to shape the trends you follow, the customs you adopt, and even the opinions you hold. Kaleda is an evolutionary biologist who holds an Omidyar Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Santa Fe Institute. Her research explores how both genetic and non-genetic processes—such as epigenetics, development, and culture—shape evolution. A former Stanford Graduate Fellow, she combines theoretical and empirical research to understand significant evolutionary transitions and the emergence of cooperation, leveraging her expertise in gene-culture co-evolution and her collaborations with leaders in evolutionary biology. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx