Of all of the topics covered this far, I believe that social conformity will stick with me the longest because it is something that happens to most of us everyday without realizing it most of the time. But now after covering social conformity in class I find ways in which I conform to others everyday.
Every day of our lives we all encounter situations of social pressure. Although one may not always be aware of it there is social pressure everywhere. One common example I can think of is going to the library, something we all can relate to because we are all college students. When going to the library it is just known that silence is expected. The library is a place where social conformity is expected. But how much would you conform in other situations?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC_JfCWYnTQ&feature=related
One example of social conformity is this clip from show candid camera. The clip is a group of people in an elevator, one being a random person and the rest all actors. All the actors have been told to face the back and then turn to see if the stranger will conform. He does conform so they decide to see how far they can take it. The two other men in the elevator remove their hats and just to conform, the stranger does as well.
This is an extreme and comical example of conformity, but it shows just how much social pressures affect us. While most of the time these conformities are small and don't have any real side affects, are there situations where they could be potentially dangerous? How far do you think one would go to conform to social pressures?
Interesting blog topic! Conformity is definitely a psych topic I'll remember as well because it defines so much of our own behaviors. I think conformity definitely can have some dangerous side effects even in social situations as we've seen in recent issues of bullying. Overall, knowing about conformity in psych can help us battle it in the future.