As it Happened: The Archive Edition - The Research Episode

It is a question that has troubled great thinkers - as well as some less great thinkers - the world over: Why do hipsters all look alike?  

Hipsters tend to wear vintage clothing worn in mismatched layers, oversized eyeglasses, and for the men, lots and lots of facial hair.

Jonathan Touboul is a mathematical neuroscientist at the Collège de France in Paris. In 2014, he spoke with As it Happens host, Carol Off, about his most recent scientific paper, entitled: "The hipster effect: When anti-conformists all look the same."

In his study, Touboul describes hipsters as people who are averse to following trends.

"Each individual detects a trend by looking at an average in his neighbourhood. He looks at the choices of the other guys, and based on this he either wants to keep his decision to conform to the majority of he's a mainstream, or change his decision in order to satisfy what he wants." describes Touboul.

In short, "if he's a hipster, he wants to oppose the majority,' says Touboul.

But in looking for the trends in one's neighbourhood, and in opposing them, hipsters then tend to create and follow their own trends, which is problematic if one is trying not to conform to trends.

"That is probably the most surprising outcome of this study," explains Touboul. "Each individual just wants to oppose, but by doing it creates a new trend. And as soon as the system realizes that he created this trend, each individual wants to oppose the trend. But as they are doing the same thing, at the same time, they will again create another trend."

This will occur over and over again. Bucking the trend will then create a new trend. And as Touboul points out, each new trend, or bucking of the trend, will recruit more and more people to the group.

When asked if he'd like to be a hipster, Touboul responds: "I'd love to, but I don't know if I have enough facial hair for that."

You can hear our interview with Jonathan Touboul, as well as these stories on The Research Episode:

A study on why some belly buttons collect so much lint.

Why the white cliffs of Dover are white.

Does 'old people smell' really exist?

A prediction of the exact date and time the world will end (in 1976).

How an accident victim's identity mystery is solved with a children's song.

A study on the phenomenon of toothbrush swallowing.