Why do we feel the need to be accepted by certain groups even if that means that we have to do or wear stuff we wouldn’t normally like? How far are we willing to go to try to mold ourselves to those standards? Sociologist today call this behavior conformity. Conformity is defined as “action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes and practices, (conformity)”. People tend to conform to group standards so they can feel like they are accepted and have a stable spot in society. Although some examples of this are fairly innocent, dressing in “trendy” clothes or behaving how your friends are acting so as not to be perceived as strange, conformity can easily turn into a dangerous situation. For example, say everyone in your primary group …show more content…
Groupthink was coined by Janis and is defined as “a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group”(Cherry). So people will essentially forgo their beliefs to conform to the group to obtain harmony or if they don’t agree with a group idea they will simply keep quiet about it rather than challenge ideas. Janis classified eight different “symptoms” of groupthink. They are Illusions of invulnerability, which leads the members of the group to take part in risk-taking and become overly optimistic. Unquestioned beliefs, leads the members to ignore the possible aftermath that their decisions can make. Rationalizing, hinders members from recognizing warning signs and from reexamining their own beliefs. Stereotyping, leads the members of the group to criticize or write off any other group who may have differing opinions. Self-censorship, makes group members who may have differing opinions not disclose them to the group. "Mindguards",certain members of the group who are self-appointed censors that withhold information they find may disrupt group consensus. Illusions of unanimity, leads the members of the group to think that everyone believes the same things. Direct pressure, this is put on members to conform when they do end up expressing their own opinions or the rest of the group feels as if they are having differing opinions. Janis’s work was influential because it helped us examine the …show more content…
He used his research to try to find what motivated some of the Germans citizens to participate and acquiesce with the mass exterminations that the Nazis were doing in World War II. He wanted to see what how far people would go just to obey authority and what it would take to get them to disobey. In his experiment the participants were divided in “teachers” and “learners”. Just like in Asch’s experiment he had his assistants act as real participants and the “learners” in the experiment. The real participants or the teachers were told they were participating in an experiment about memory. So they were instructed to read off a pair of words and if the learner got it wrong they were to give them an electrical shock. The shocks weren’t real but the learners were hided from the teachers so they didn’t know that they weren’t really being shocked. For each answer the learners got wrong the teachers were to increase the voltage of the shock they were given. The different voltage levels were labeled “15 volts - slight shock” to “450 volts - danger, severe shock” and they were instructed to go all the way until it reached the highest voltage. As the shocks got higher in voltage they would have the learner scream louder and louder, yelling things about his “bad heart”. If the teachers tried to quit the experiment Milgram's assistants, who were acting as the scientists, told them to continue no matter what.
In his article, he provides excerpts from his experiment to solidify his concepts. For example, Gretchen Brandt continuously askes if the "Student" is ok; however, when the "Experimenter" says to continue, she does so but not without saying she "...doesn 't want to be responsible for anything happening to him" (80). Another example Milgram provides is of a man by the name Fred Prozi. Prozi proceeds through the entire experiment. That is, until he runs out of word pairs.
From the Velasquez excerpt he explains Janis definition of Group think which refers to the susceptibility of groups of people to get increasingly out of touch with reality (Janis 84). Velasquez believes the main cause of groupthink is socials pressures within the group due to the group wanting to get along and keep harmony (Janis 84). When a group really wants to have a good standing relationship with each other they could possibly just agree on something to not upset the others, or to make them not like them for their beliefs and not agreeing resulting in them not evaluating the situation. This negatively affects ones decision making outcome. Groupthink as any other problem has symptoms and we will go over each of these.
So far, conformity has been discussed in terms of group identification and social roles. However, individuals also tend to change prior beliefs to seek group acceptance. Asch (1951) investigated the effect of group pressure on conformity by asking participants to make a line judgment with seven confederates that gave the same obviously incorrect answer. Yet, 37% of participants conformed by giving the incorrect majority answer, whereas in the absence of group pressure, less than 1% of participants conformed (Asch, 1951). There are implications on normative influence as individuals, despite knowing the majority opinion was incorrect, may conform to avoid social punishment (Breckler et al., 2005). However, Turner and colleagues (1987) argued
Solomon Asch developed and ran an experiment regarding the power of conformity that affects most populations. Psychologists have been attempting to fully understand the mental workings behind why people are so easily pressured into following others for the longest time. The main focus of psychologists, is to figure and understand what the causes are behind social conformity. Numerous terms are brought up when studying conformity. The “unspoken rules or guidelines for behavior in a group” (Hock 293) are labeled as social norms. When individuals are placed in large groups, the tendency is to lean with whatever the majority of the group thinks. The regular behavior of the individual tends to readjust to appease the superior crowd.
At first Milgram believed that the idea of obedience under Hitler during the Third Reich was appalling. He was not satisfied believing that all humans were like this. Instead, he sought to prove that the obedience was in the German gene pool, not the human one. To test this, Milgram staged an artificial laboratory "dungeon" in which ordinary citizens, whom he hired at $4.50 for the experiment, would come down and be required to deliver an electric shock of increasing intensity to another individual for failing to answer a preset list of questions. Meyer describes the object of the experiment "is to find the shock level at which you disobey the experimenter and refuse to pull the switch" (Meyer 241). Here, the author is paving the way into your mind by introducing the idea of reluctance and doubt within the reader. By this point in the essay, one is probably thinking to themselves, "Not me. I wouldn't pull the switch even once." In actuality, the results of the experiment contradict this forerunning belief.
The origins of the pressure to conform come from the people you surround yourself from. The individuals in my house are extremely involved in the concept of “fitting in with the crowd.” They endeavor to be accepted by their peers and regularly assure themselves they are. People also feel compressing pressure from modern society. Both genders are expected to behave a certain way and are looked down upon if they choose to innovate.
In 1972, Irving Janis presented a set of hypothesis that he extracted from observing small groups performing problem solving tasks; he collectively referred to these hypotheses as groupthink¹. He defined groupthink as “a quick and easy way to refer to a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action²” A successful group brings varied ideas, collective knowledge, and focus on the task at hand. The importance of groups is to accomplish tasks that individuals can not do on their own. The Bay of Pigs, Watergate, and the Challenger disaster are all forms of failure within a group. Specifically, you can see the effect of groupthink of Americans before September 11, 2001. The thought of harm to the United States was unfathomable, but only after the attacks did they realize they were not invincible. When a solid, highly cohesive group is only concerned with maintaining agreement, they fail to see their alternatives and any other available options. When a group experiences groupthink, they may feel uninterested about a task, don't feel like they will be successful, and the group members do not challenge ideas. Stress is also a factor in the failure of groupthink. An effective group needs to have clear goals, trust, accountability, support, and training. Some indicators that groupthink may be happening are; making unethical decisions, they think they are never wrong, close-minded about situations, and ignore important information. Many things can be done to prevent groupthink from happening. One way is to make each person in the group a “critical evaluator”. The leader must ...
In several cases, folks will set aside their personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group. Group-think influences police officer’s rationalizations for some behaviors by preventing members of the group from reconsidering their beliefs while causing them to ignore warning signs. Group-think tends to occur more in situations where group members are very similar to one another and is more likely to take place when a powerful and charismatic leader commands the group. Situations in which the group is placed under extreme stress or where moral dilemmas exist also increase the occurrence of groupthink (Haberfeld et al.2014,
"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." John F. Kennedy. When we allow ourselves to conform to what our friends, family or society asks of us, we lose the ability to grow into our own persons. Conformity, however, is more than just the 13 year old middle school girl wearing UGG Boots and an Abercrombie hoodie in order to fit in. It is more then only listening to the top 40 radio stations and watching American Idol so you have something to add to the conversation that your co- workers are having over stale, company supplied coffee. Conformity is a killer. It attacks the week and strangles them until their true self dies and a new person is created. This new person disregards all values they once held in high regard and will do anything to not be perceived as different. The funny thing about this killer is people are more than willing to give into his pressure in order to seem "normal". Sometimes it is easier to be obedient and do and feel as people say you should in order to avoid trouble. Sometimes it is easier to blend in to the crowd then to be crucified for being different. Why would anyone really want to be different? Society tells us different is bad. Different is weird. We are taught from the beginning that different is not what you want to be, it's not a safe bet. So people are willing to give in to the pressures of society in order to be "safe". People's willingness to give into conformity is shown in the literary pieces entitled "What is a homosexual?" by Andrew Sullivan and "Salvation" by Langston Hughes. Both show what great lengths people will go to in order to slide under the radar of public opinion and criticism.
Many people believe they are their own person and are free to make their own choices; however, few explore just how much a group can influence their behavior. This realm of influential group power has been analyzed by several psychologist to see how far people will bend to stay within a group mentality. Psychologists Asch, Zimbardo, McEwan, and Lessing defined a group mind as a mass of people who ignore their own morals and conscious to act as one whole entity because of obedience and pressure. As a result, this creates the potential for the group to become a destructively dangerous force.
There are eight symptoms of groupthink. The first symptom is when all or most of the group view themselves as invincible which causes them to make decisions that may be risky. The group has an enormous amount of confidence and authority in their decisions as well as in themselves. They see themselves collectively better in all ways than any other group and they believe the event will go well not because of what it is, but because they are involved. The second symptom is the belief of the group that they are moral and upstanding, which leads the group to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of the decisions. The group engages in a total overestimation of its morality. There is never any question that the group is not doing the right thing, they just act. The disregarding of information or warnings that may lead to changes in past policy is the third symptom. Even if there is considerable evidence against their standpoint, they see no problems with their plan. Stereotyping of enemy leaders or others as weak or stupid is the fourth symptom. This symptom leads to close-mindedness to other individuals and their opinions. The fifth symptom is the self-censorship of an individual causing him to overlook his doubts. A group member basically keeps his mouth shut so the group can continue in harmony. Symptom number six refers to the illusion of unanimity; going along with the majority, and the assumption that silence signifies consent. Sometimes a group member who questions the rightness of the goals is pressured by others into concurring or agreeing, this is symptom number seven. The last symptom is the members that set themselves up as a buffer to protect the group from adverse information that may destroy their shared contentment regarding the group’s ...
In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us. We, as humans, hold individualism in the highest regard yet fail to realize that groups diminish our individuality. Lessing writes, “when we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does... but we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group” (p. 334). Groups have the tendency to generate norms, or standards for behavior in certain situations. Not following these norms can make you stand out and, therefore, groups have the ability to influence our thoughts and actions in ways that are consistent with the groups’. Lessing’s essay helps set the context to understand the experiments that social psychologists Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo conducted to explain conformity and obedience.
Conformity can be seen as the influence that creates a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with the current social norms. Arthur Jenness was the first psychologist to study the idea of conformity with his study involving beans and a glass bottle. His study was to see if individual participants would change their answer once in a group setting with more people discussing their thought on how many beans could be in the glass bottle. Jenness found that nearly everyone had changed their answer and that each group changed their amount on average from 250-380 beans. He discovered that social influence can create this sense of conformity because participants may have believed that their guess with the group was better than their own individual guess. The significance of this concept is that it helps explain why people change to become a certain aspect of society or to fit in with at least one group of people. This includes the people who say that they do not conform with modern day society, they are conforming to one group none the
Conformity involves the changing of one’s attitudes, opinions, or behaviours to match those of the ‘norms’. The “norms”, established by society, are what we should or ought to be thinking, feeling, or doing if we wish to be accepted into a group. This desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need.
Conformity has a huge impact on today’s society. Everyone plays a role, but it mostly pressures young adults and teenagers. Today, people will knowingly go along with the status quo, even if it goes against what they believe or morally respect. Everyone wants to belong, it’s human nature. Psychologist Abraham Maslow stated in his hierarchy of needs that after physiological and safety needs are met, "belongingness" is next in line. People are easily peer pressured into going to a party that lasts until the wee hours of the night, knowing that they have tests or quizzes the next day. They fall victim and disregard what they know is right for them in the long run. They became blinded to what was important to them, all in the name of conformity.