Conformity, Consistency, and Cultural Heterogeneity

We analyze two contradictory forces on behavior: individuals desire to behave consistently across situations, while they also desire to conform with the behaviors of others around them. We construct a model that shows that, together, these two forces contribute to the formation of distinct cultures: although each force alone creates a simple dynamical system, the combined forces produce tension that slows time to convergence. This may provide an explanation for the simultaneous existence of both intra- and inter- cultural heterogeneityas well as heterogeneity within political parties and other organized groups of people. We also find that the tension between the two forces is more pronounced in societies where one force dominates the other., When we expand the model to include errors, we reveal the non-linear additivity of the system; i.e. when we consider conformity and consistency forces together, the whole differs from the parts. This final result emphasizes the pitfalls of studying individual forces in isolation and extrapolating to their combined effects.