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Byung Hoo Park

Think Twice Before You Conform With Society

Many of you would have repeatedly heard that societies are getting larger and larger, transportation and communication is progressing every day, and the constituents of society are more likely to be influenced by norms and pressures from society. These are all true, and the third phenomenon is especially close to reality – it is often called conformity. Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms or politics; to simplify, it is following what everyone else is doing, often blank-mindedly. One reason for conformity is the theory that it is easier to follow the path others have taken already than to create a new path. Another reason may be that people often conform to the norm as a result of seeking security within a group.


One social experiment that clearly depicts the effect of conformity is Asch's experiment, conducted in 1951. The experiment was set up so that eight students, all but one being actors, were given one card with a line drawn and another card with three lines drawn, one of which was the same length as the first card’s line. Then, all eight students were asked to identify which line matched the length of that on the first card. The seven actors acted as if one of the apparently incorrect lines matched the length, and the experiment intended to see the effect the incorrect actors will have on the test subject. The interesting aspect of the result was that while the test subjects got 99% of the tests correct without the actors present, that percentage dropped to 63.2% when the actors were present, an average of all the individuals tested. While the degree of conformity varied for each individual, it was visible that on average most people are affected in some way and conform to the opinions of others.


Applying the concept of conformity on a macro scale becomes what is visible in modern society - large amounts of propaganda, fake news, and uninformed, unknowledgeable opinions formed from that news. Many people are practically trapped within a social bubble only full of certain types of information, either willingly or unwillingly, and conformity takes place effectively trapping those people in those bubbles. They conform to all the opinions they hear without a second thought, then go on to think it is their own opinion. Then these people go on shouting their opinions, demanding change and a better world. It is conformity that traps them, and the lack of the will to escape and to find out more that becomes the obstacle to the change they are seeking. Voices of change are necessary and crucial to a healthy society, but people need to know what they are seeking and have their own views instead of simply echoing noises. What would Asch have said upon sight of the current world? He may have been simply delighted to find confirmation of his theory wherever he lay his sight on.




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