I found this very short but interesting insight on this topic in an online journal:
http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/2008/mar/13/time-change-results-conformity/
Firstly, what is conformity?
Conformity is any change in behaviour or attitude caused by another person or group.
Do we all conform or is it only the "weak" ones that do?
Do you tell time and use it in your everyday life? Do you queue up in line to order food? Do you follow laws and social norms?
If you answered any of these questions with YES, you have already conformed.
What would we do without time? What would we do without speed limits? What about our laws?
We all conform to a certain extent, like the link suggests, we all conform to time. Someone invented time to make it easier for us but what if you didn't want to conform? If you ended up going to work/school whenever you felt like it; drove on the other than usual side of the road where other cars are coming towards you; what if you drove at whatever speed you wanted, wherever you wanted; what if you greeted the queen with "what's up, yo"; what if you went to school in a bikini; what if you relieved yourself in the middle of the street?
If you think about it, we wouldn't be a very civilized bunch if we didn't conform to the social norms that have been established and even changed over time.
This, of course, doesn't mean that those who stick to social norms are very civilized all the time. Let's take a look at the famous Jonestown Massacre. Read an article here and tell me what you think.
For those who don't know the Jonestown Massacre happened in 1978 in South-America and is a great example of conformity at it's worst. The leader of a small religious community convinced his 900 followers to commit suicide but not before killing their children and the elderly first. Altogether, 914 people died, 276 of those were children.
To understand this Massacre, i thought i'd bring up Asch's length judgment studies where the subject conformed to a completely and obviously wrong answer because the other people in the room were all giving that answer too. What does that tell us about Human Nature?
According to Turner (1991) there are three main reasons why people conform.
1.) People like to think their perceptions and attitudes are accurate and valid. That means that most people will change their opinions or rethink their attitudes if other people disagree with them.
- Asch's Experiment on length judgment
- Asch's Experiment on length judgment
- The Jonestown Massacre in 1978
Let's learn by sharing. Conform and you shall get all your points for this tutorial. ;-)
If you have the time do something good by playing a game that is free but your playing will feed the hungry. Click HERE - I wonder how many of you will conform. ;-)
Turner, J.C. (1991). Social Influence. Milton Keynes: Open University Press
3 comments:
Very interesting insight, Julia.
I think the personality of a person to a great GREAT extent determines whether he/she will conform in everyday situations. I'm the sort of person who sticks by the rules and you won't find me doing anything out of the ordinary. But I dont think that makes me "weak" though, I just dont agree with the whole "rules are meant to be broken" ideology. It's like when you decide where to eat for lunch, I personally prefer another person to make the decision, so I am in fact, conforming right? But thats cause it just doesnt seem like a big deal to me. Whereas for another person, they WANT to the one in charge of making decisions and making OTHERS conform.
I still dont get why the Jonestown people did what they did, that, like you said is just an extreme example of conformity. It's just so scary to think people would kill themselves because a person said so.
wow, julia.. you've written quite comprehensively about conformity. i've also blogged about conformity that i've observed in my preschool children that i taught previously, perhaps you may like to read it on my blog =) on the issue of the Jonestown Massacre, its scary to think that people can just blindly obey a 'leader' to commit murder. my point of view is that although social norms are good for guiding everyday behaviour, it is sometimes necessary to make a stand not to conform, especially when the social norm defies logic. for example, in my family we were taught as children that we shouldn't waste food. therefore, we were taught to finish all our food at meal times. however, i wouldn't feel hungry enough to finish the food given to me if i had just taken a snack before the mealtime. when that happens, my mum would nag at me to finish all the food citing the poor people in third world countries who are starving to death daily. as a child, i would just obediently finish the food to prevent my mum from nagging at me excessively. now as an adult, she knows that no amount of nagging will get me to finish the food of i'm already full.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. ~Winston Churchill
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