Conformity

Remember those times in class when the teacher has asked a question and the answer in your mind is correct, but when you look around the majority have chosen an answer completely opposite? What about the time your friends pressured you into stealing that shirt or CD. Or mocking little Billy because he was a �geek’? At the time there was no problems. As a part of the group you felt confident, secure and “like so cool”.

But when you found that your answer was actually the correct one or were caught with the items in your bag or punished for taunting Little Billy, do you remember your cowardly reason for acting as you did? The vast majority of people will recall saying, “Everybody is doing it” – in my opinion this is a sentence that is one of the worst four-word combinations in the English language.

Conformity involves the changing of one’s attitudes, opinions, or behaviors 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 undoubtable human need.

When faced with a challenging or trivial task, there are two common ways of handling the situation. One is to do so according to your own personal desires and belief with no specific regard to how other people will think of you after the decision. The other is to base the decision on the how others will view and respond to it. The most of us would probably choose the second choice and gladly trail on the path of conformity. There are many reasons for conforming and these are seen in many daily human actions.

The main reason being the guarantee that you will never be left alone. It is so often that people commit wrong acts, then when accused, they timidly retreat into the numbers of those involved. It is this unquestionable human fear and weakness of solitude that drives people to shelter in the shadows of conformity. Another is to avoid conflict or tension with others, especially if the person or party is with high authority as they also have the ability to punish. For example the leader of a group you hang out with has the ability to sway the others against you and you quickly find yourself looking for a new group all alone. On many occasions there has been disagreements to certain rules or policies, yet conformity has pressured them into being unquestioned and just accepted.

Conformity is continually demonstrated and seen, especially amongst adolescents. For example amongst this audience. I’m not sure that everyone was listening to me speak or even still awake for that matter. However, once I stop talking, someone will start to applaued and the rest of you will follow. If I asked all of you individually what the speech was about could you answer my questions? Most unlikely. Then why will you all start to applaud? Probably not because of the quality of the speech but because it is just the �norm’ to applaud on conclusion.

It is true that this decision to go against social conduct brings about certain difficulties however it also has one obvious advantage. That is people are able are able to see you for the first time. The