Appeal to authority (argumentum ad verecundiam)

Biological Parallel

Juvenile vervet monkeys learn which foods are safe by watching what the matriarch eats, not by independent testing. This deference to authority—copying high-status individuals—is adaptive when learning is costly or dangerous (poisonous plants, predators). The fallacy persists because for most of human evolution, cognitive authorities (elders, successful hunters) possessed genuine expertise earned through survival. Modern environments broke this correlation, but the heuristic 'trust status' remains deeply wired.