Teens- are they all just trying to fit in, or is it more than that? By Shital Darji

How many times have you went along with a choice just for the sake of not standing out? According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary conforming is defined as: being in agreement, being obedient, or being compliant. As an adolescent conformity is at the root of one’s being, it can be the driving force behind friendships. Research shows that adolescents in particular use conformity to effectively learn social skills, what is perceived as the norm. Social skills include how we interact with each other, verbally and non-verbally, often through our appearance, gestures, and body language. Teens tend to underestimate risks- they are more likely to do harmful or dangerous things when with a group of friends like; engage in drug use, road racing, and binge drinking. Since social influence plays such a large role in whether or not an adolescent feels as though they fit in, we can see that normative and social conformity occurs frequently in adolescence. Normative conformity is the type of conformity that happens when one has the desire to be accepted (especially among their peers), and social conformity is when one makes changes to their behavior or even their beliefs to fit in with their peers. While conformity can be unfavorable, studying it can teach us a great deal about teen behaviors, and this knowledge can be used to create a more positive environment during adolescence.

In 1951, Solomon Asch conducted a conformity experiment in which he investigated how much social pressure from a group influences conforming. For the experiment Asch used 50 male students to participate in a ‘vision test,’ a line judgement task. For the line judgement task, Asch placed seven research assistants (confederates) who were in on the experiment with one naïve participant. The seven confederates were told what their responses would be in advance to being given the line task, the naïve participant was unaware that the other participants (the confederates) were in on the experiment. For the line task, participants were shown a target line; then were shown three more lines (A, B, or C) and they had to pick which of those three lines was most like the target line, the naïve participant would always answer last. Out of the 18 trials, confederates would give a wrong answer on 12 critical trials. The purpose of this experiment was to see if the real (naïve) participant would conform to what the majority said was the correct answer.

According to Asch’s experiment, it was found that over the critical trials, 75% of the participants conformed at least once, and 25% didn’t conform at all. In the control trial, when there wasn’t any pressure to conform since there weren’t any confederates, the experiment found that less than 1% of the participants gave an incorrect answer. This is perplexing because, we tend to believe ourselves best and if we innately know that the answer everyone else is giving is wrong then why are we more likely to comply with the majority? The pressure can simply be too much and taking the risk of standing out from the crowd can feel debilitating, especially when we work so hard to fit in with the crowd. Adolescents, in particular, risk being shamed and bullied if they stand out from the crowd even slightly.

Studies show that there is a lot more to conformity in adolescents than just the pressure to fit in. Sometimes high rates of conformity can be linked to high social anxiety. Another factor of conformity in adolescents is their perceived social norms, which can have a powerful impact on an individual’s behavior. Perceived social norms can influence a person’s eating behaviors, social interactions, clothing style, and even the music they listen to, this is saying that people will go along with the majority so that they will be liked and accepted.

Through Asch’s experiment, and the many other studies done since then, we can see that conformity happens for two reasons; acceptance (to a group) and compliance (being inclined to agree with other’s beliefs). There is evidence that shows there are many factors that influence conformity (e.g., perceived social norms, social anxiety levels, and not wanting to be an outcast for your differences). With this knowledge about conformity, we can teach teens about the importance of inclusivity so that a greater number of positive social interactions occur throughout adolescence, therefore, can eventually change the perception of social norms. So, given that you now know your behavior can strongly influence others, what can you do to model kinder behavior in social interactions?