“Why are we born? What is a sense of life? Who am I really? ”, - these questions have occupied many people at all times. Modern psychology is also trying to find answers to them, exploring the nature of personality, as well as the mechanisms of its formation.
Social psychology closely dealt with the features of personality behavior in the community in the mid-twentieth century. This was due to the historical features of that period. In Europe and the United States, informal youth movements began to develop that were protesting, the Cold War between the USSR and the West was in full swing. Social values were changing before our eyes. It is no exaggeration to say that the construction of a new society has begun. In this environment, scientists faced the task of studying the interaction of the individual and society.
What makes people give up their own opinions and take the side of the majority? Why is it easier for a person to accept someone else's point of view, and not his own? The search for answers to these questions was devoted to the study of the concept of “conformist behavior”.
Experimental research
The experiments began in the 50s of the twentieth century in the United States, the first results were obtained by Solomon Ash. He created a study that has become classic. A group of subjects was asked to compare the length of the segments by eye. Pre-warned people and one person who did not know about the experimental conditions participated in the experiment. Participants sometimes gave incorrect answers to the question posed. The subject's reaction was interesting. In 37% of cases, people gave the same incorrect answer as all "decoy ducks." If the opinions in the group were divided, then the subjects more often gave the correct answer. I must say that it is impossible to make a mistake in this experiment. It was only necessary to compare the segments, the difference between which was obvious.
A little later, a similar experiment was carried out in the USSR, in Kiev, as part of a program to study social behavior. In one of the experiments, preschoolers participated, who were offered to try porridge, and say whether it is well prepared. In a group of six children, five received sweet cereal, and one child salty. The results were amazing. Only 60% of children were able to show independence of judgment and said that porridge is salty. The rest prefer not to break away from the team.
By the way, this experiment was repeated in Russia in 2010. The exact data were not published, but judging by the video, children nowadays demonstrate greater freedom from majority opinion than in the era of the Soviet Union.
So, it was experimentally shown that such a phenomenon as conformist behavior really exists. It is extremely important for people in a difficult situation, when they need to resist the opinion of the majority. Sometimes a person is ready not to believe his eyes and doubt his own feelings if they contradict what other people say. A similar phenomenon underlies all kinds of techniques for influencing consciousness.
Conformism as a phenomenon
What is conformist behavior based on? It is necessary for the survival of society. In a crisis, this mechanism allows you to maintain unity, the person’s adaptation time in the new team is reduced, the group becomes single and more resistant to external influences.
For any society, it is important that people's actions comply with a limited range of rules, norms and regulations, therefore, throughout life, a person experiences an impact, hidden or obvious, which is aimed at the formation of his attitudes, opinions, beliefs.
Many psychologists emphasized that a person’s personality is of a social nature. We shape it for survival among people, based on the experience of parents. But in each person there is a part of the soul of a person, a true "I", which can and should be revealed in oneself.
Vivid and unusual manifestations in the behavior of an individual are dangerous for the integrity of society, therefore they are minimized even in the process of education. Thus, parents raise “decent” boys and girls, who subsequently will not be able to go beyond the generally accepted rules.
Conformist behavior is the behavior of a person passively accepting a dominant opinion in a group. Lack of activity and creativity is the main feature of such a person who survives, adapting to the existing order of things.
Thus, the phenomenon of conformism is negative for those people who strive for creative self-realization and want to develop independent judgments.
Moreover, it is useful for society, as it is one of the mechanisms that ensure its survival.
To solve the question of how to resist the influence of society and not be thrown out of it, the concept of lawful behavior will help .
Behavior built in accordance with the rights and freedoms of other people is not conformist, it is reasonable. A mature person who understands the need to consider other people in his life does not feel dependent on their opinion, such a person can agree on ways to achieve their goals in a collective environment where everyone has the right to make his own judgment.
We can add that the question of how much social pressure limits our creative aspirations and independent thinking has always occupied philosophers, and does not lose its relevance in our age of an abundance of information and fear of the hidden manipulation of the consciousness of the masses.
In order to understand where society ends in a person and his “I” begins, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that create a person, and also learn to track the manifestation of their true nature.