Why Do People Conform

Solomon Asch’s classic study on conformity. highlights the importance of the study in the field of psychology, ask if one gender tends to conform over another, explain the reasons why people conform to social norms and discuss the factors affecting conformity. Have you ever wondered why groups of teenagers dress and wear their hair so similarly? Or why people order the same dish as their partner at a restaurant? Or why people queue in an orderly fashion at the supermarket? These are all examples of social conformity and when you look closer at our social world, they are all around us.
The aim of Solomon Asch’s conformity experiment was to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. The
But why do people conform? Asch interviewed the participants of his experiment afterwards and asked them why they went along with the general consensus of the group. Many of the participants simply replied because they did not want to feel stupid or embarrassed. This supports the theory of the connection between conformity and self-esteem. Research in the area of conformity generally supports the hypothesis that persons with low self-value tend to be more conformant to social pressures than persons with high self-value.
Other factors that can increase conformity are the cohesiveness of the group. There is a mounting body of evidence that suggests that the more attracted or committed to the group you are a part of, the more likely you are to conform. Two groups of college girls in sororities were studied with respect to popularity patterns and binge eating. In sorority alpha the further from the mean level of binge eating was correlated with being less popular. In sorority beta the more the women binged