Something that I found extremely interesting and what is very prevalent in today's world is social conformity. Conformity is changing one's behavior as a result of group pressure. This occurs in people of all ages throughout the world.
Solomon Asch's study on conformity in the 1950s produced some shocking results. As seen in the picture, participants were presented with the original line and asked to match it with the correct corresponding line (A, B, or C). About 4 confederates would intentionally answer incorrectly. The participant would then be asked to give his answer. Surprisingly across the 12 trials performed, participants conformed to the wrong answer 37% of the time.
For me, and I'm sure almost all of you reading this, it seems obvious that "A" is the correct answer in the picture. We may feel that we would indeed answer "A" if presented with this task, but is this really the case? Group conformity is a truly powerful thing. It's power seems to come from the biological need for humans to belong. It is shocking what some people are willing to do in order to become part of and stay within a group to fulfill their biological desires. Studying this topic has really given me new perspective on my life and the choices I make among friends. As our friends may be saying "B" or "C", will we have the personal willpower to resist social conformity and confidently say "A"?
When I saw that video I really giggled hard in class. I would have never done the same as the people in the video did.