The Follower Problem

Conformity is thinking the way others from the group believe to avoid being different. I also work with people in higher rank than mine. Sometimes it is hard to think differently than them because I fear being different or sounding stupid. To overcome this hindrance, thinking should be based on evidence and not on what others think.

Being in a group effects others individuals causing them to stop thinking rationally, they make decisions to fit in with the rest of the group. In the article “The Monsters

Humans often act in ways they know to be incorrect or wrong for their own social benefit, often because we fear being different. One example of this is the Asch Conformity Experiment, where 75% of participants would choose the wrong answer on an obvious question just to not stand out from the crowd. After the experiment, all said they felt self-conscious and feared disapproval from the group. Another example is when those in a social group have preferences or choices differ from the rest of the group, they will often conform to the rest of the group's opinion. Nobody wants to be the only person to dislike a certain food or think a certain way, they fear they will be judged negatively for it. As social creatures, we seek for and strive other

When people are part of a group, they often start to deviate from their personalities, and tend to focus on the opinions and actions of the group. Groups can generate a sense of engaging energy, which can lead to behaviors that a person would not typically engage in if they were alone. People seem to believe that certain behaviors are acceptable when they are in groups that would otherwise not be acceptable if they were alone. Many people believe they cannot be held responsible for their actions when they are with a group because they see the

Also, society plays a big role in people’s opinions. People might change their minds because of the society. If the society refuses some ideas, the chance of having the opposite thought is very low.

There is typically an underlying social force causing the individual to act or think in that specific way. (Cox, 1986)

Because humans crave attention of others, they live their life and conform to whatever the majority of the people around them says. Asch’s Conformity Experiment, which was when they hired eight actors and one test subject and gave them all a test and told the eight actors to say the wrong answer, they found that the test subject would usually conform to the majority vote even if it was wrong. This showed us that people would usually conform to the majority answer on a test, even if it was wrong. Even in high school, students conform to make themselves look cool and conform to things even if they know it’s wrong. Asch’s experiment and american high schools prove to us that humans don’t want to stand out and we just want to fit in and get attention.

I’ve always believed that being individual was good. But other people prefer to believe that conformity is better. Although I should know better by now, I cannot help thinking that sometimes people do need to get involve with other people. Furthermore, I believe that people should just try to be in the middle, so that they would be able to make their own choices

American psychologist, Rollo May, once said, “the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.” This philosophy is supported by Solomon E.Asch’s in his article, “The Opinions and Social Pressure.” In the article, Asch conducts a series of experiments that centralize on the influences of social pressure and the extent to which an individual, when confronted by the differing opinions of a majority, will surrender their perceptions to others. Asch argues that although humans believe they’re independent in their decision-making, they tend to pay heed to the majority because they fear the scrutiny of others and being an outcast in the group.

“Social influence is the process by which the actions of an individual or group affect the behavior of others” (Feldman 495). These influences are strongly experienced by members in the group. Every group is unique and is mostly guided by a particular norm and behavior. An individual in a group passively or actively allows himself to be influenced by the group just to have a sense of belongingness. In the bid to prevent being excluded or rejected from a group, some individuals overtly adhere to the norms of the group. “Thus, people conform to meet the expectations of the group” (Feldman 495).

Normative influence primarily occurs in situations where an individual, when amidst others in a crowd, tend to go along with them primarily in order to be liked and accepted by them as part of their fraternity. Research has identified that normative inference normally occurs as an inborn human nature as human beings tends to associate themselves with others in order to maintain a good social contact and relationship with them. Ideally, normative influence is normally furthered by the need for an individual to increase their chances of surviving especially during adverse conditions. This entails that people may at times seem to agree with others just in order for them to appease themselves to them and avoid potential conflict of standing alone and standing out. In some situations normative influence may occur where individuals associate with complete strangers. In such cases, due to mutual fear for each other, an individual may naturally try to agree with the rest in order to avoid appearing as contradictory or controversial.

Mr. Kuykendall, you made an interesting assumption. How one thinks and influenced by others can be linked to several factors. Group dynamics acknowledge that individuals feel a sense of identity and self-esteem based on their membership in the group.

All humans’ behavior is affected by social influences to some extent. The level of influence will vary from person to person, depending on the several factors, such as self-esteem, their level of self-awareness, morals, and values (Velden, 2007). People do many things to ensure they are accepted by the people in their group and to keep from being ostracized by individuals around them (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Individuals are usually guided by their own sense of what is right or wrong and will make logical decisions based on this. However, they will sometimes completely push their own individual identity

Group size is important because as Asch (1955) found, the larger the group, the bigger the phenomenon of conformity due to social norms. Group cohesiveness makes the group to have greater bonds due to similarity and ability to easily show empathy to each other (Christensen et al., 2004) and social support is noticed to groups with higher levels of cohesiveness and bonding. On the other hand, there are personal factors affecting the type of conformity such as self-awareness (ability to understand own self), self-presentation (try to present ideal self in order to conform), personal control (desire to feel that one has control, as a human right, over particular situations) and gender (gender differences- women are more likely to conform) (Franzoi, 2009).

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Quoted from American author Ralph Waldo Emerson, this encapsulates the very spirit of a natural human. In our natural state, we humans strive to continue building on our foundation. The foundation is different for each and every one of us, meaning different things will be built upon each of our foundations. This is humanity, what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. We strive to not only survive, but to live. To experience life in our own individual perspective is what makes us unique. In a society discouraging individualism, humanity is stripped away and replaced with synthetic interaction. Simply put, collectivism strips life away. People will not conform to what others think they should conform to, unless it is