A new study has shown children as young as two tend to follow the crowd, a result which may come as a surprise.
The study, published online in the Cell Press Journal Current Biology shows evidence that two-year-olds are more likely to pick up actions when they see them repeated by three of their peers than if they see the same thing done three times by a single peer.
"I think few people would have expected to find that two-year-olds are already influenced by the majority," says Daniel Haun of the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology and Psycholinguistics.
"Parents and teachers should be aware of these dynamics in children's peer interactions."
The same applies for chimpanzees - they are just as likely to pick up habits from their friends - proving a behavioural link between the two, share strategies for social learning. Orangutans did not appear to feel the majority sway.