Abstract Studies have shown that participants can adequately take into account several cues regarding the weight they should grant majority opinions, such as the absolute and relative size of the majority. However, participants do not seem to consistently take into account cues about whether the members of the majority have formed their opinions independently of each other. Using an evolutionary framework, we suggest that these conflicting results can be explained by distinguishing evolutionarily valid cues (i.e. they were present and reliable during human evolution) from other cues. We use this framework to derive and test five hypotheses (H1 to H5). Our first three experiments reveal that participants discount majority opinion when the members of the majority owe their opinions to the same hearsay (H1), owe their opinions to having perceived the same event (H2), or owe their opinions to a common motivation (H3). Experiment 4 suggests that, by contrast, participants do not discount majority opinion when the members of the majority owe their opinions to sharing similar cognitive traits (H4). Finally, Experiment 5 suggests that participants adequately discount majority opinion when one of the members of the majority is untrustworthy (H5). This set of experiments shows that participants can be quite skilled at dealing with informational dependency, and that an evolutionary framework helps make sense of their strengths and weaknesses in this domain.

中文翻译：

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利用简单的提示信息依赖

摘要 研究表明，参与者可以充分考虑关于他们应该给予多数意见的权重的几个线索，例如多数的绝对和相对大小。然而，参与者似乎并没有始终如一地考虑大多数成员是否独立形成他们的意见的线索。使用进化框架，我们建议可以通过将进化上有效的线索（即它们在人类进化过程中存在且可靠）与其他线索区分开来解释这些相互矛盾的结果。我们使用这个框架来推导出和测试五个假设（H1 到 H5）。我们的前三个实验表明，当多数成员将他们的意见归功于相同的传闻时，参与者会打折扣（H1），他们的观点是因为感知到了相同的事件（H2），或者他们的观点是出于共同的动机（H3）。实验 4 表明，相比之下，当多数成员的意见归因于共享相似的认知特征时，参与者不会打折多数意见（H4）。最后，实验 5 表明，当多数成员之一不值得信任时，参与者会充分打消多数意见（H5）。这组实验表明参与者可以非常熟练地处理信息依赖性，并且进化框架有助于理解他们在该领域的优势和劣势。当多数成员的意见归因于共享相似的认知特征时，参与者不会打折多数意见（H4）。最后，实验 5 表明，当多数成员之一不值得信任时，参与者会充分打消多数意见（H5）。这组实验表明参与者可以非常熟练地处理信息依赖性，并且进化框架有助于理解他们在该领域的优势和劣势。当多数成员的意见归因于共享相似的认知特征时，参与者不会打折多数意见（H4）。最后，实验 5 表明，当多数成员之一不值得信任时，参与者会充分打消多数意见（H5）。这组实验表明参与者可以非常熟练地处理信息依赖性，并且进化框架有助于理解他们在该领域的优势和劣势。