What is "Contrarian biology"?

This project has started brand-new research that focuses on “Contrarians”, who behave differently from other individuals, to find what biological importance they have for themselves and for society.

The contrary bluestripe snapper stays by a pillar (front) while others swim in an orderly manner.

Why do we flock together?

For animals, forming a herd or group has many benefits, such as searching for food efficiently, finding a partner, and protecting themselves from enemies. However, peers could also be rivals, which creates the dilemma of intensifying competition over resources. What mechanisms have solved this problem in the evolution of collectivity?

What is a contrarian?

A contrarian behaves differently from the majority (perverse person). You may find yourself wanting to do something different from what others are doing. Contrarians can be found in not only human society but also hards of animals. Why do contrarians arise in collective organisms, which should be prosocial?

The contrary medaka fish searches for food at the bottom of the water while others search near the water surface.

Our hypothesis

We think contrarian as a key player solves the dilemma in herd formation. Contrarians may appear anti-collective. However, they could potentially rebalance the trend within a group and that solves the problem of overconcentration for attractive resources. Additionally, contrarians, for themselves, could take a minority advantage, achieving results at a lower cost by avoiding competition. It is also important that populations with contrarians utilize empty niches. In other words, contrarian has a good reason for both individual and group. One fascinating point of this contrarian hypothesis is that collective equilibrium could be achieved even in a society of selfish and non-cooperative individuals.

Toy simulation using the Boid model (animation). Contrarian (orange), is set to repulse when the group’s direction of movement is aligned (horizontal axis only). Thus, the contrarian heads to the low-value reward while all others flock to the high-value reward.

Goal of our project

We test the contrarian hypothesis and believe that gives us a lot of hints to reveal the mystery of the evolution of society. Generating contrarians may be a key mechanism to form groups in solving the problem of intensifying resource competition. We aim to create “Contrarian Biology,” a new field of comprehensive life science that not only explains contrarians within the conventional framework but also views them as dynamic beings that adapt to others, elucidating their genetic and neural basis. We expect that our research will redefine the nature of decision-making by individuals and groups belonging to society and have a significant ripple effect on a wide range of fields in the future, including social science, economics, psychology, education, medicine, and engineering. Please see Research projects for details.

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