Conformity bias

Biological Parallel

Fish in schools and birds in flocks synchronize their movements through local interaction rules, creating collective behavior without central coordination. This alignment reduces individual predation risk by up to 90% in studies of sardine schools, making conformity an evolutionarily stable strategy. Organisms that deviate from group behavior become conspicuous targets—natural selection ruthlessly eliminated the nonconformists, leaving descendants wired to match group behavior even when individual judgment differs.