The spontaneous emergence of conventions: An experimental study of cultural evolution

Significance Social conventions shape every aspect of our lives, from how we greet each other to the languages we speak. Yet their origins have been a topic of theoretical speculation since the time of Aristotle. Most approaches assume that institutions are necessary to organize large populations, but the simplest explanation is that universally accepted conventions are the unintended consequence of individuals’ efforts to coordinate locally with one another. Although this hypothesis is compelling, it lacks conclusive empirical support. Here, we present results from controlled experiments demonstrating that changes in network connectivity can cause global social conventions to spontaneously emerge from local interactions, even though people have no knowledge about the population, or that they are coordinating at a global scale.