by: jon tritley
You’ve probably heard of the concept of ‘free will.’ And you’ve probably had this concept explained to you as the idea that we, as human beings, are the only species on Earth that has it – the ability to think introspectively, ruminate on choices, and make decisions. The idea that we make choices based on our own individual perspectives that are not influenced by some instinctual drive. But is this really the case? Do we always make choices based on our own individual perception? A line of research suggests that the answer to this question may be no, particularly when we are making that choice amongst a group of other individuals. We sometimes make decisions in which case we would have dealt with differently had it not been subject to group influence. In fact, we sometimes make choices that we perceive as incorrect yet we still carry through with them. This ‘group influence’ is known in the academic world as social conformity.
Social Conformity
Social conformity can be defined as, “The modification of an individual’s judgement under the pressure of a group.” (Berns et al., 2005, p. 245). In other words, when we observe others in a group engage in a particular behavior, that behavior impacts our own perception and adjust our behavior accordingly. Social conformity was first studied by Soloman Asch (1951) who carried out a number of famous experiments on the concept. A group of individuals were presented with a line of a particular length on the left and a number of lines of varying length of the right. Participants were to call out amongst the other individuals which line they thought was closest in length to the line on the left. Each person would call out their answer for the others to hear. However, only one of the individuals was the actual participant – all others were playing along with the experiment (i.e., confederates). These confederates were told to sometimes give blatantly wrong answers. The actual participant would often go along with the group and call out the incorrect answer. The participant would conform to the group, even though he believed the answer was incorrect. Asch’s experiment led to a plethora of research that have not only confirmed the existence of social conformity, but also have aimed at explaining how and why this happens.
Why We Conform
Many researchers have offered their thoughts and experiments as why this happens. One explanation is that social conformity occurs when an individual believes they are perceiving the choice incorrectly (Asch, 1952). Berns et al. found biological evidence of this idea – when participants were presented with a task and subsequently shown results of other confederate participants, changes occurred in the brain that suggest an alteration of how they were perceiving the task. They may believe that the group has the correct answer, whereas they are incorrect because of the way they are perceiving the problem. Another explanation is that even though we would behave in a particular way, we conform to the group because we do not want to stand out and aligning to the group opinion is more appealing than standing by personal beliefs (Cialdini & Golstein, 2004). We believe that, in some instances, it’s better to sink in to the crowd rather than out yourself as different from the group.
“A group of individuals is statistically more likely to make a better decision than any one person alone.” –Berns et al., 2005 |
Given that I am a graduate student in school psychology, this concept had me wondering if a particular population that school psychologists are known to deal with conforms to group pressure: children with autism. Children who are diagnosed with autism are known to experience a great deal of impairment in their social skills, such that they rarely play with others, engage in eye contact, or even speak. Would children still conform to the group norm if they lack social skills? Yafai, Verrier, and Reidy (2014) set out the answer this question. These researchers found an inverse relationship between autism traits and social conformity. In other words, the higher number of autistic traits one possesses, the less likely they are to engage in social confirmatory.
Conclusion
Regardless of why it happens, one thing is for certain: it happens. As a result of Asch’s (1951) experiments, we know that we all are subject to engage in behaviors that we wouldn’t otherwise had it not been for the presence of a group. It is likely that we all have done this at some point in our lives. In fact, there is evidence of social conformity at the biological level. Berns et al. (2005) found that participants engaging in social conformity experienced changes in their brain. The two areas of the brain that were affected were the amygdala and the right caudate nucleus, which deal with emotions and motor processes, respectively. However, it should be noted that a meta-analysis (this is where researchers look across a large number of studies over time to analyze their results) by Bond and Smith (1996) found that social conformity has decreased over time in western cultures. Regardless, social conformity is still occurring. We like to think that we are rational human beings who make sound judgements and engage in behaviors only if we decide they are worth carrying out. However, it appears as though we may not have the degree of free will in which we would perceive ourselves to have.
Social conformity causes all of us to engage in behaviors that we think we ought not to do – but we do it anyway. |
- Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgements. In: Guetzkow, H. S., ed. Groups, Leadership, and Men Research in Human Relations. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press 177-190.
- Asch, S.E. (1952). Social Psychology. New York: Prentice-Hall.
- Berns, G. S., Chappelow, J., Zink, C. F., Pagnoni, G., Martin-Skurski, M. E., & Richards, J. (2005). Neurobiological correlates of social conformity and independence during mental rotation. Biological Psychiatry, 58, 245-253.
- Bond, R., & Smith, P. B. (1996). Culture and conformity: A meta-analysis of studies using Asch’s line judgment task. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 111-137.
- Cialdini, R.B., & Golstein, N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591-622.
- Yafai, A. F., Verrier, D., & Reidy, L. (2014). Social conformity and autism spectrum disorder: A child-friendly take on a classic study. Autism, 18, 1007-1013.