Would Peer pressure really affect how other act?To know the truth to this theory, psychologist Asch devised a simple but devastatingly effective experiment.
The test subject sits in a room with seven other people. The experimenter shows them all an image of a vertical line, X, followed by three more lines, A, B and C, one of which is the same length as X.
The people in the room are asked, one at a time, to state which of the lines A, B and C is the same length as line X. The process is repeated several times during the session.
Initially, everybody in the room selects the correct line, but over the course of several rounds, the others begin to choose lines that are quite clearly not the same length as line X.
In fact, the other seven people in the room are in cahoots with the experimenter. Six of them are always asked to make their choices first, giving the test subject plenty of time to consider his or her own decision.
Despite the simple nature of the question, more than 35% of the people tested provided an answer that they felt to be incorrect. This has nothing to do with visual impairment: in control experiments, people chose correctly almost 100% of the time, and during the actual experimental sessions, test subjects would remark on how clearly wrong the other people in the room were.
Asch concluded that either the subjects didn't trust their own judgment when confronted with a number of opposing opinions, or they were uncomfortable voicing a conflicting opinion against a majority decision.
He concluded that, for them, being accepted was more important than being correct.
Crucially, if even one other person agreed with the subject, then the subject was much more likely to make the right decision.
when looking at the bigger picture, what do you think might be some of the consequences of the above article's conclusion "if even one other person agreed with the subject, then the subject was much more likely to make the right decision." in a teen's life?
ReplyDeleteI think the teen would feel more comfortable in expressing his views/making a decision on something when he has someone to agree with his opinion. Just like how we ourselves would feel more comfortable with a friend with us, I think the same thing applies here. We would feel very insecure and think we are the awkward person when our opinions are different from the rest.
DeleteAn real life example would be in class, when the teacher ask us a question and we are required to answer or raise our hands, nobody would really do it unless a few people voice out their comments or raise their hands.
DeleteYes! Also, you would not want to attend an extra activity in school unless you have a friend attending it too for example the recent million flower project thing held in school. From my own opinion, it is because I do not want to be alone doing a specific activity in case I get 'judged' by my friends. This can be seen through the phrase "I am judging you" said commonly said by people. I obviously do not wawnt to be 'judged' in case I would appear awkward to others. I would therefore avoid the activity unless there is someone else following me.
DeleteThis post was posted by Lian Yixin.
ReplyDeleteTo state the negative impacts, teens would engage in risky behaviours in order to fit in in a group, when contacted with bad peers, this can include alcohol and drugs. Teens are afraid of the feeling of being left out and sometimes in a group, it would be better to agree with the majority than defying it.
ReplyDeleteParents may be bad influence to the kids too right? For example a father smokes openly in front of the child and the child would definitely learn how to smoke just by watching his dad. I know of some underaged students who smoke under the influence of their parents as well as their friends. This would be really bad if the group mixes around with other students and influences them too. When the student grows up and have their own children, they too would learn smoking at an early stage if the parents continue their bad habits.
Deletehey ya thats another alternative way for looking at it. and since parents spend time with their child since young, i think their bad behavious will have an adverse effect on the child's behaviour development.
DeleteDo you think that teens nowadays are more insecure about themselves as compared to the past? if yes why?
ReplyDeleteYes I think it's because of the great difference in society's expectations of us now. They expect us to excel in everything we do and this thus makes us feel pressured to do a job assigned to us.
DeleteYes, because societal's expectations are very high now. Moreover, people are always judging. Hence, we will want to give the people around us a good impression of us, so much so that we think we are not good enough.
ReplyDeleteyes, i think teens are now more insecure about themselves yes. the world has turned into a conceited society, with people in general being all judgemental and all. esp. for teenage girls. its sad that teenagers are sterotyped like this nowadays. I am a teenage girl myself and I tend to see that a lot of girls now and days want to be stick thin, want a perfect face and all that crap. I see it all over my social networking sites. its kinda stupid cause it just shows their low self esteem? they are kinda actually indirectly trying to fish compliments from others about themselves to make themselves feel good??i find that dumb. and Media. Seeing all those people on television or the internet with "perfect" looks (cough, cough, makeup and plastic cough) with "perfect" lives makes someone wish they had all of that, when the people they see don't even have it to begin with.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, the actresses in many movies are very good looking and often skinny. Many people will usually be hardcore fans of them due to this aspect that the actresses have in them. Hence, girls will look up to these actresses to be popular.
ReplyDeleteyea nowadays the entertainment industry is becoming v superficial and usually good looking people will have more popularity. i guess thats why many celebs resort to plastic surgery so as to be more successful in their career somewhat.
DeleteThe issue of peer pressure is a very grave issue. The need to accepted in the society, to be liked by others force teens to fall into the traps of peer pressure. Most of the times they might not like their peer circle. But they still continue to be "friends" with them. This can be due to the want to be popular and fit in. What they don't know is that these kind of "friends" don't stick around. They let their insecurities get the best of them and in the end, they are the ones crying because they were back-stabbed by their so-called friends...
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