Humans are predisposed, as a result of evolutionary forces, to interact. Interaction is the process through which social structure emerges. One form of interaction is willful interaction. Each individual exerts a force of will in a different direction, some similar and others oppositional. Some individuals exert a stronger force of will, of greater magnitude, than others. The outcome represents the vector sum of the magnitude and direction of each individual will.
What determines the content of an individual’s will?
The content of an individual’s will is influenced by the circumstances in which the individual finds himself, his environment.
Humans are designed by evolution to establish societies. A population cannot operate as a society without some form of structure. The particular form that the structure assumes is highly variable. The form in which a structure emerges is the result of individuals exercising willful intent in responding to the circumstances they experience and interacting with other members of the population. The emergent structure represents the vector sum of the population at large.
Professor Morris expressed a similar principle:
“…the will of the population.”
“The population” has no independent will. Individuals exert will. The will of the population is the vector sum of the individual wills.
“I didn’t say that social expectations are evolutionarily adaptive.”
You wrote:
If some level of social conformity is evolutionarily adaptive, then some level of social expectation must exist for people to conform to.
