People adopt ideas according to features of the source or the social setting rather than the content, copying the prestigious, the successful or the majority.
Because most claims cannot be evaluated by the person receiving them, the cheapest available cues are about the speaker and the crowd. Context bias is the general name for using them. It is usually adaptive, since the successful and the numerous are often right, and it is exactly what allows an arbitrary variant to sweep a population once enough people hold it.
In practice
- A method adopted because a respected firm uses it has been evaluated on its source, and may be fine.
- A claim believed because everyone in the room already believes it has been evaluated on the room.
- Standing
- Prestige, success and conformist biases are its main varieties; content bias is the alternative it is defined against.
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- How societies hold together, sort people, and change