Opinions and Social Pressure
samyfern December 8th, 2007
It isn’t surprising how different people may act when being affected by a group. Everything a person does or says is influenced by social and cultural standards, called norms. When a person fails to succumb to these norms they are often times singled out by the group. There is a constant fear of being socially unaccepted by the group or being the outside individual, which helps to explain why someone would change their answer due to the group member’s answers. Humans can act very differently when being affected by group opinions or actions. For example, deindividuation is the loss of sense of self when group members are essentially anonymous. This often occurs in crowds, and it explains how situations can become riots when everyone is acting as one. For example, riots of European soccer fans during games is explained as arising from deindividuation. It’s truly amazing how the level of the group can affect an individual and their choices.
