Conformity, or acting the way most other people in one’s social group act, often grows out of a person’s desire for security and belonging in a group — usually a group of similar age, culture, religion, or educational background. Being different from the group carries the risk of social rejection, a deep fear of many people. The drive to conform is often particularly powerful for adolescents, for whom acceptance by peers can be a primary goal, but it affects people of all ages. However, some studies suggest that conformity decreases with age.
Although the word often has a negative connotation, conformity is not necessarily a bad thing. People’s tendency to conform helps society function smoothly in many ways. For example, when drivers follow the rules of the road, it enables safe transportation. If the members of a team conform to the norms of interpersonal interaction, they enable effective communication and collaboration1.
Psychologist2 Herbert Kelman identified and labeled three major types of conformity. The first, compliance, occurs when a person conforms publicly but privately keeps his or her own original beliefs. People comply because of a need for approval from others and a fear of rejection. The second, identification, is conforming to a particular person whom one respects, such as a friend or family member. Identification is usually motivated by the role model’s perceived3 attractiveness or success. The third type of conformity, internalization, is when a person has actually absorbed a group’s belief system and sees it as truly their own, both publicly and privately. This is the most profound4 type of conformity and is likely to stay with people for a long time.
The strong force of conformity is well documented in psychological research. In 1936, a researcher named Muzafer Sherif hypothesized that people would change their opinions about something in order to conform to a larger group even if they were among strangers. To test this hypothesis, he designed an experiment which made use of the autokinetic effect.
[5]The autokinetic effect is caused by the fast, small movements of our eyes that happen as we look at a particular object. When a person is placed in a dark room that contains only a single small, stationary5 pinpoint of light, these eye movements produce an unusual effect: they make the point of light appear to move.
In Sherif’s experiment, he placed several people in a dark room one at a time and asked them to stare at a small dot of light 15 feet away. They were then asked to estimate the amount by which the dot of light moved (although it actually did not move at all). On that first day, each person saw different degrees of movement; sometimes their answers varied by as much as three inches. Sherif then had the subjects return each day for three more days to repeat the experiment. However, on the second, third, and fourth days, he would put three people in a room together to observe the dot and give their answers.
Sherif observed that, over the course of the three trials in which the subjects sat together, their answers became more and more similar. On the final day, their answers settled around a common norm. Sherif concluded that this experiment demonstrated the way a norm develops in society, and how people tend to give up their individuality in order to conform to that norm. Few people desire to be an “outlier” whose opinion differs widely from what is typical in the group.
Researchers have also explored the “dark side” of conformity. The need to be accepted and the fear of punishment for deviating from group norms can, in many cases, impel people to adopt negative attitudes or behaviors. A phenomenon called the “spiral of silence” can occur when one opinion becomes entirely socially dominant6 because those with other opinions are afraid to speak out. Human history is rife with examples of the destructive power of mass conformity.
Notes
Collaboration (noun) : the act of working together
Psychologist (noun) : a scientist who studies the the mind and human behavior
Perceived (adjective) : believed, understood
Profound (adjective) : intense or deep
Stationary (adjective) : unmoving
Dominant (adjective) : most important, powerful, or influential