08/02/2023

In Folha, Marcelo Viana talks about the 'hipster paradox'.

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Reproduction of Marcelo Viana's column in Folha de S. Paulo.

Anyone with teenage children has seen it happen. Young people reject established norms, they want to bring their individuality, to do things differently. And the result is that they all end up looking very similar, in what they wear, their haircuts, the way they talk, and what they do.

The "hipster" effect (or paradox), as this phenomenon is called, is far from being specific to youth. In fields as diverse as social sciences, economics and finance, or neuroscience, it has been observed that the interaction between a majority group and a certain number of nonconformists (hipsters), who reject the majority standard, often leads to the nonconformists gradually synchronizing their attitudes in such a way that they end up adopting identical behaviors, creating a new type of conformity. It is also not exclusive to human beings: components of certain materials ("spin glasses") do the same.

Curva apresentada no artigo de Jonathan Touboul sobre efeito hipster – Reprodução Folha

Years ago, researcher Jonathan Toubol, from Brandeis University in the United States, provided an explanation for this counterintuitive phenomenon. In a paper published in the scientific journal "Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems," Toubol presented a mathematical model—a set of equations—that describes the evolution of a system formed by a conformist majority and a certain number, larger or smaller, of hipsters who oppose the majority standards.

His study of this model showed that, starting from very varied initial situations, the hipster group undergoes a kind of metamorphosis (phase transition) in which its members synchronize their behaviors with each other, always in opposition to the majority. Toubol concludes that, far from being a paradox, the hipster effect is an inevitable result of interaction within large groups of agents.

An article on this subject in "MIT Technology Review" had an unexpected and uncomfortable effect. A man who considers himself a nonconformist, unhappy with the article, threatened to sue the magazine, accusing it of using a photo stolen from his social media as an illustration without authorization.

To read the full text, visit the newspaper's website.