I had just broken up with my boyfriend when I sat down with a few friends of mine, each holding her own cigarette in her hand. I never minded it at first, always shrugged my shoulders at it. However, sooner than later conformity kicked in. Curious at first, yes, but now very tempted to try. I usually took a breath or two while lighting his cigarette for him, but never more. He wouldn’t let me, and it didn’t taste that good anyway. But within a group full of smokers, the idea slid into my head like the seductive snake it was. I looked at Allaa and her slims and motioned for her to give me one. “Hayatiii,” she said, and handed me the whole pack. I took one and lit it for myself, and I didn’t get up until I’ve had about four.
On my way back home on the bus, I thought to myself, “Did I simply just want to try how smoking was like, or is it really normative social influence?” I was rather confused, more or less blaming myself and feeling guilty for doing something I never really believed in -possibly just to fit in. When I was close to finishing my ride, it occurred to me that I was experiencing public compliance, whereby I publicly agreed to a behavior, literally adapting it to myself, while I disagreed to it privately -within my own social perception.
Other forms of conformity are quite harmless sometimes, even funny actually. Empathetic illnesses are common within married couples, especially those with a pregnant wife! You tend to notice how the husband greatly feels for her to the point that he himself suddenly and rapidly has back pains and tons of cramps through out the 9 months. In social psychology, we have a term for such cases. It’s called mass psychogenic illness, whereby an individual exhibits signs of physical pain without any factors affecting his/her organs.
So sweet!
There are several examples of conformity that I could bring up, but only two have always captured my attention.
FEAR THE HOMOSEXUALS.
They’re a minority, thus they’re weird, thus they’re different, thus they’re evil, thus we’ve ALL got to hate on them. Social influence plays a great role in this area, where a behavior of an individuals influences another and while it does, the injunctive norm of hating on homosexuals is what gets people to perceive such a behavior as correct. If it were up to the minority influence, I would have been able to prove those people wrong and lose idiosyncrasy credits while doing so -which works best in my favor, raising my self-esteem up to the ceiling like Tom and Jerry’s head bruises!
However, if you were to ask any of those conformists about WHY they’re conforming, they’ll completely deny it, automatic thinking gushing to their rescue -using the fundamental attribution error, as well as their defense mechanisms. “Why would I confirm? This is my own belief, my own mind, my own opinion.”
GO EMO, GO COOL.
Remember that phase Egypt went through about two-three years ago? Colored bangs with a bow stuck to it, severely dark make-up, band t-shirts, black nail polish, and converse shoes. It was a true example of conformity at the time. I was a victim, even! It couldn’t be less funny right now, reminiscing how I was typically going with the flow of everyone else’s waves. Give me a P, a U, a B, an L, an I, a C -Give me the rest?! Public COMPLIANCE!
And now, for the best kind of conformity…
Roaring Tigress 