Normative Influence Of Conformity In Sororities

“If you join that sorority, you will become just like them. They are all chronic bitch-faced girls who binge drink and spend all of their parent’s money on cocaine”, was stated to me during recruitment week. Although some believe that conformity in sororities is not a thing, my recent experience has shown otherwise. Before leaving for winter break last semester, my best friends and I made a packed that we were all going to rush for a sorority when we had returned. My five friends and I were so excited to go through recruitment but also very nervous. We had stuck together all throughout the first semester here at Roanoke College, so the chance that we might be in different sororities was frightening. Furthermore, despite the rumors and stereotypes
of this one sorority, my girl friends and I still wanted to be apart of this group. The week of recruitment came and I thought that it was going to be the happiest time of my life. Unfortunately, that Tuesday, I had woken up to horrible news that my best friend, who had lived down the street, had died suddenly. Although I was sad that I was unable to go through recruitment, I now believe that everything happened for a reason. Despite the fact that I was grieving, I was so happy that my friends were in the sorority we all had planned to be in. They were so happy and our friendships had remained strong, until I noticed that their behavior began to change. Before joining the sorority they dressed modestly and were totally against drugs, but now they have conformed to the ‘bad girl’ stereotype that is associated with the sorority. For example, during spring break my friends went to the beach with their sorority, in which they had promised me that they were not going to do drugs, get into trouble nor sleep around with the boys, unlike their other sorority sisters. But yet they returned that following week with STIs, drama with sleeping with the same guys, and withdrawal sickness from the cocaine. I was concerned about my friends, but when I went to confront them, they denied being in the sorority had changed them and that their sorority is a lot better than the other sororities. The main psychological principle that can be concluded from this experience is conformity.
Conformity is the convergence of individuals’ thoughts, feelings, or behavior toward social norms. One of the most influential conformity researchers in psychological history is Muzafer Sherif, who researched the reason why people conform. Conformity can occur for two different reasons, such as, informational influence and normative influence. Normative influence is when people want to be liked and so by being in a group they gain social approval that leads to compliance. On the other hand, informational influence is when people want to be right, so they join a group that they perceive to be correct, which leads to acceptance. In this case, my five close friends changed their beliefs and their behavior to fit their sorority. The normative influence explains the reason why my friends began to do things they normally would not have done, is because they wanted to obtain acceptance and liking from the other sorority sisters. For the informational influence reason, my friends viewed the sorority as being the most correct and they joined that sorority because they wanted to be correct also. My friends did not believe doing drugs was okay, but because they viewed their sorority was the most correct, the group’s norms, such as doing cocaine, was therefore
acceptable. In conclusion, the best reason to explain why my friend’s beliefs and behaviors had changed after joining the sorority is conformity. Interestingly, most of the time people privately accept group norms and believe them to be correct. But my friends however, publicly went along with the norms even though they did not privately accept the norms to be correct. Furthermore, there could possibly be other psychological principles that add to this. For example, deindividuation is the psychological state in which group identity completely dominates individual identity. My friends did things with their sorority, that they usually would not have done, because they felt less responsible for their actions and less like an individual. Another theory that could be the reason why my friends had conformed is self-fulfilling prophecy. If people predict that my friends do the bad things that are associated with the sorority they are in, then the people’s beliefs influence their actions towards my friends, leading them to fulfill the prediction.