Have you ever wondered why you are always subconsciously doing something that surrounding people are doing without a question? The answer is simple, it’s Conformity.
1. Definition:
Conformity or conformism is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, guidance shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others.
For example, in a group of friends going to watch a movie, if the majority chooses to watch “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” instead of “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc”, the other friends will agree to watch “Demon Slayer”.
2. How does it work?
In 1953, Professor Solomon Asch did a research on conformity. He performed a lab experiment with 50 male students from Swarthmore College. He put a participant to form a group of seven people inside an enclosed room and presented them a line test, which basically provided a target line and many comparison lines. The task was to identify which comparison line is most likely as long as the target line. Each of them had to state the answer out loud consecutively.
In fact, the answer is very obvious to almost everybody. However, in the experiment, six out of seven people in the group were Asch’s confederates a.k.a “the actors”. This made the participant believed that the other six were just mere participants like him.
In the first few trials, the confederates gave the correct answers. This boosted the participants’ confidence in doing the test. Later, “the actors” gave the wrong answers. The participants was hesitant, then, eventually gave in and answered the same as the group despite knowing the right answers. However, when one of confederates gave the right answer first, the participants told the right answer, which they already knew, right away without hesitation.
The experiment shows that people tend to “follow” the crowd in order to feel belonged to a group. They can only feel this sense of belonging when they have the “same” beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours to others. Therefore, they are often afraid to show their differences whether they are right or wrong just to try to be the “same” as everybody else. Some even think that the crowd is always right, which is not always the case, and completely disregard their own opinions. The major causes are the “expectation” to fit in and the fear of being rejected from the society due to their differences.
3. Conclusion:
“Conformity” addresses the actions of trying to have the “same” mindsets and behaviours as the surrounding people due to the fear of rejection and the pressure of trying to fit in. Anyone can have this psychological response in our society as a part of human nature.
If you have different thoughts, it doesn’t always mean that you’re right or wrong as well as other people’s opinions. Sometimes being aware of what others think is very helpful, but innovations are only possible with your own independent voice. The balance between individual thinking and conformity is important in our life.
Here’s the question for you, “Have you ever agreed to your friends or family just not to feel being left out?”