Runaway Selection
Arbitrary preferences can become self-reinforcing through cultural transmission and network effects, creating value independent of underlying quality.
The preference itself can be arbitrary. But once a slight preference exists, runaway selection can amplify it to extreme levels.
R.A. Fisher proposed in 1930 that some sexual selection creates self-reinforcing feedback loops unconnected to survival fitness. If females develop a slight preference for males with longer tails, males with longer tails have more offspring. If the preference is genetic, their daughters inherit the preference for long tails. This creates a feedback loop: preference for trait → males with trait reproduce more → preference becomes more common → trait becomes more extreme. Eventually you get Irish Elk with antlers spanning up to 12 feet - a trait that contributed to their extinction. The key insight: the preference itself can be arbitrary.
Business Application of Runaway Selection
Arbitrary preferences can become self-reinforcing through cultural transmission and network effects, creating value independent of underlying quality. Supreme's box logo demonstrates pure runaway selection: the preference is culturally inherited, not based on product quality, yet generates massive premiums through the feedback loop of scarcity → desirability → more scarcity.
Discovery
R.A. Fisher (1930)
Proposed runaway selection theory in The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection