Dopamine neuro-party of conformity. Why do we strive to be “like everyone else”

Psychology as a field of scientific activity has one peculiarity. Many concepts that were initially strictly scientific and related to psychology subsequently acquired a slightly different meaning and began to be used in other areas, often completely non-scientific; Some such concepts have completely lost connection with psychology. The same thing happened with conformism. Nowadays, this term is used mainly in politics and ethics, and psychologists for their needs had to invent a new one, although outwardly similar - “conformity”. However, the former concept is also used in its primary meaning, so when referring to conformism, one should distinguish between “psychological” and “political”.

What is conformism

Conformism

- This is a change in the behavior and opinions of an individual that is due to some outside influence. Influence can come from one person or a whole group of people, be real or apparent. This is the most general, psychological definition.

In politics, conformism is the position of a person (or a social group), implying opportunism, agreement with the existing orders in society, the political regime. Currently, the concept, when used in a political way, has a negative connotation; sometimes the word “conformism” is used as a kind of curse word. In reality, not all conformism, even political, is a negative phenomenon.

Who is a conformist

Conformist

They call a person who consciously occupies a subordinate position in society and agrees with its attitudes. A person who decides to change his behavior and way of thinking under the influence of another person, including his idol, is also called a conformist. Most often, however, the word is used in a socio-political context.

In fact, most people are conformists to one degree or another. Even without openly recognizing the existing political regime, most people prefer to remain on the sidelines, taking advantage of the freedom granted by the authorities. Even those who are trying to actively fight the existing system - as a rule, using non-violent methods - outwardly show a completely loyal attitude towards it; because otherwise he will be exposed, captured, arrested, executed - and his cause will perish.

A conscious conformist is characterized not so much by intellect (even people with sufficiently developed intellect can adhere to conformity), but by certain life values. They are most often low. A conformist usually values physiological survival most of all, and almost any political regime, including a dictatorial one, is ready to provide it. The conformist either does not have any higher inclinations and talents, or has them only in those areas that are supported by the government. For example, in Russia, most specialists in the oil and gas industry are conformists, since the government has made them an elite and provides them much better than all other citizens.

A supporter of conformism most often adheres to “traditional values”: he wants to start a family and have children, he is religious, he considers himself a patriot.

However, a certain conformity is neither good nor bad, and sometimes even good. After all, among social norms there are not only destructive, but also creative ones. Who argues that stealing, killing or walking around the city naked is good? Conformity in a number of cases demonstrates its positive sides. Thus, an employee accepts the rules of conduct at the enterprise, and in exchange for this he receives a salary, is promoted, and earns the respect of employees and superiors. An even more clear example: we cross the roadway in accordance with the traffic rules, thereby saving our lives.

Paradoxically, in some cases conformity is also rebellion. By completely obeying the commandments “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not steal,” a person thereby protests against current Russian social attitudes, which prescribe the glorification of thieves and murderers. It happens that in a school class internal attitudes contradict accepted behavior at school; in this case, a student who accepts the conditions of a given group thereby rebels against school rules - and vice versa, while continuing to follow school rules, he becomes an outcast in his class.

Problems begin when conformity becomes a lifestyle. Man makes the subordinate state the ultimate goal of existence. It becomes “correct” even where it is not particularly required. In addition, he begins to tell others how to behave. Politically, a conformist becomes an informer.

Strictly speaking, any manifestation of initiative is a change in reality, which means an attempt to set new, own rules for it. Therefore, a supporter of conformism who has made it his lifestyle is a pathologically insecure person. Often he does not want to change anything even in his private life, not to mention any actions directed outward. He does not dare to quit his old job and move to a new one, even if the team there is better and the salary is higher. He is hesitant to watch new films or listen to new music, especially if they seem too challenging.

Pros and cons of conformity

What are the advantages and disadvantages of conformity? The pros and cons of conformity are determined by the characteristics of the specific situation of its manifestation.

pros

Internal conformity is a psychological defense mechanism. Thanks to this typological character trait, a person avoids loneliness.
Conformity in following traffic rules can reduce the number of road accidents and save a person’s life.
The positive effect of conformity was described by S. Asch when he studied the features of the organization of intragroup activities.
In psychology, experiments were carried out with the help of which it was possible to prove that such a phenomenon as conformism increases the level of team cohesion.
In production, workers show conformity, which allows them to receive a salary and quickly move up the career ladder.
The effect of conformity in managerial psychology allows managers to successfully solve assigned tasks.
Thanks to conformists, social values such as religious education, patriotism, marriage and family, and a woman’s desire to have children are preserved.

Minuses

Why is conformism dangerous?

The negative consequences of conformity are loss of individuality, loss of one’s “I,” and violation of personal harmony.
Correction of conformity in enterprises is necessary, as it slows down the introduction of innovative technologies and contributes to the development of conservatism.
A person’s inability to make decisions independently and take responsibility for their life.
Decreased self-esteem, the emergence of personal complexes.
In the realm of politics, conformists are informers.

Thus, it becomes obvious that such a socio-psychological phenomenon as conformity is beneficial for the individual if it does not turn into a person’s life motto. The advantages, disadvantages and consequences of conformity can be clearly shown in real-life examples.

Classification of conformism

Conformisms are different. They are distinguished by the cause of occurrence, degree, attitude to one’s own thoughts and other factors. There are several classifications of conformism.

Traditionally, conformity is divided into two types

Internal conformity - in this case a person reconsiders his views, changes his position; This is practically the same thing as self-censorship.
External conformity - while internal acceptance of a different opinion does not occur, the person remains true to himself. He is only trying to appear “correct”, avoiding showing his disagreement with social norms. It is in this case that what is commonly called “conformism” is observed.

There are other divisions of conformity. Thus, Herbert Kelman proposes three stages of conformist behavior

Submission - in this case, there is only an external acceptance of influence, which continues only as long as the one who exerts the influence is in the field of vision of the individual.
Identification. It also has two varieties: in the first, a person becomes like an agent of influence because he feels sympathy for him; in the second, each participant accepts certain rules of behavior that the partner expects from him, and he himself expects certain behavior from him.
Internalization - in this case, the opinion of society partially or entirely coincides with the opinion of the individual. There is a complete interpenetration of the individual and the social environment; thanks to this, the behavior of the individual becomes relatively independent of external conditions.

G. Song proposed another classification of conformism. The first type is conscious behavior in which a person shows conformity, guided by certain considerations. The second type is irrational conformism, or the so-called “herd instinct”; in this case, the person acts unconsciously, “purely automatically” exhibiting the same behavior as those around him. Let us remember Vasily Alibabaevich, who, when asked what made him escape from prison, innocently replied: “Everyone ran - and I ran.”

Stages of development

A brief definition of conformity in psychology is adaptation to life among people. The phenomenon of conformity is formed as follows:

Submission stage. It begins from the moment a person enters a particular community. He is immediately influenced by the members of this group. As a result, a person's opinions and position change.
Awareness stage. Analyzing the values of the group, a person comes to the conclusion that his previous value system is erroneous, so in most issues he agrees with the opinion of the group. In this case, conformity refers to an imaginary scientific approach.
Activity stage. A high social status in the reference group becomes a priority for a person. This means that deep down he may not agree with the opinion of the group, but outwardly he will demonstrate conformity because it benefits him.

Thus, the basis of internal and external conformity is the desire to avoid penalties, indifference and fear of loneliness.

Causes of conformity in humans

Why does a person become a conformist? This question was partially answered above: a conformist is an insecure person who submits to general opinion in order to ensure his physiological survival. Apparently, the mentioned “herd instinct” also corresponds to this.

Often, however, other factors contribute to the acceptance of conformity. For example, the desire to achieve a certain social status, success in society; It is known that others accept and respect to a greater extent a person who is not particularly different from them.

Erich Fromm paid a lot of attention to the feeling of loneliness and anxiety. He wrote that conformity for many people serves as a means of getting rid of this feeling. By submitting to the general opinion, a person in his own eyes becomes part of the team, and this increases his self-esteem.

Why do we need herd mentality?

The desire to “be like everyone else” has several motivations. Conformity can originate from the desire to gain the approval of others. And it is important for a person to be liked by the “pack”, since evolutionarily it has always been warmer, safer and easier to get food in a group. By fitting into a row, we quench the thirst for self-identification, one of the basic needs.

Finally, the emergence of the herd instinct can be explained by the theory of evolutionarily stable behavioral strategies. For millions of years, people lived in groups. Individuals in the group were characterized by certain behavior, say, “wear a mammoth skin, sit in a cave in the dark, don’t eat berries from that bush.” Any step away from the behavior of the crowd was punished by natural selection: you either froze, or were eaten by a predator, or were poisoned. Every day, the behavior of each individual was checked by natural selection, and thus the best strategy was selected from among the alternatives, which increased the chances of survival and reproduction. So, if the majority have already tested various solutions, why go through them all over again? It’s much more economical to just do it like everyone else.

Therefore, the proud goose succumbed to the opinion of a bunch of stuffed animals: “The devil knows, apparently, with such a scary gander you will get good offspring.”

We wore low-rise jeans for the same reason our ancestors wore skins: it seemed like the best survival strategy.

From an evolutionary perspective, being a conformist is good. All good things should be identified and rewarded by the brain.

What is social conformity?

There is such a thing as social conformism. It is opposed to group conformism and is aimed at assimilating norms common to the entire society. In everyday speech, it is precisely the social variety of the phenomenon that is meant by the word “conformism.” For this type of behavior, fashion is of decisive importance. A social conformist strives to dress in the latest fashion, listen to what is “in trend” today, vote for “fashionable” politicians - that is, those who are praised by the majority. This behavior, on the one hand, increases a person’s self-esteem and relieves him of the feeling of loneliness; but on the other hand, such a person is deprived of individuality, his personality consists entirely of ready-made templates created by public opinion.

A social conformist strives to go with the flow in everything, he does not dare to engage in any kind of rebellion - he even refuses to wear shoes of the “wrong” style. A social conformist, of course, does not strive to be invisible, to “get lost in the crowd”; on the contrary, following general trends is a form of self-expression for him.

Following popular opinion is not necessarily a negative character trait. Such behavior requires moderation. It is necessary to seek a compromise between the demands of society and personal desires and beliefs.

Examples of conformity in life

When I conduct trainings with teenagers, after finishing the theoretical block I ask the group: “Give me an example of conformity.” This task baffles teenagers.

The following examples of conformity from life can be given:

The most obvious example of conformity from everyday life is a pedestrian crossing, where most people begin to move only when the traffic light turns green. However, as soon as one person crosses the road at a red traffic light, several more impatient people (conformists) will almost always run after him. This is an example of external conformity without internal conflict.
Another example of conformism can be cited from the vegetable market: seeing that there is a queue at one of the counters, a person decides that this seller has a better price-quality ratio than the other. Although in reality this is not the case. It’s just that a person is guided by the opinion of the majority.
The presence of a tie and glasses is regarded by people as belonging to a business or scientific field of activity. Here conformity manifests itself in the form of a social stereotype.
Conformity is manifested in the desire of adolescents to wear clothes of a certain style and listen to songs of a popular group. Perhaps some teenagers don’t suit this type of sweatshirt or trousers at all, but they wear them because it’s a kind of pass to their reference group. This is an example of how the phenomenon of conformism manifests itself in a group of children and youth.
A negative example of how external conformism manifests itself is the drinking of alcoholic beverages by minors. Maybe one of the children does not want to drink beer, but, fearing ridicule from his comrades, drinks along with the rest.
External conformism manifests itself in a situation when one student from the group proposes to run away from the last class, he is supported by the rest, not wanting to be branded as “nerds” and in order to maintain friendly relations with classmates.
When a professor with an academic degree gives a lecture at an institute, most students listen to him carefully, take notes on his words, without questioning their truth. Thus, the manifestation of conformity is influenced not by the content of the educational material, but by the personality of the speaker.
External conformity is expressed in the fact that a new employee in the office meekly accepts the team’s tradition of going to the same cafe for lunch. He may not be satisfied with the prices or the dishes on the menu, but he will continue to go to this cafe every day along with the rest of the employees, since it is important for him to join the new production team. This is a clear example of forced conformity.
Examples of external conformity with internal conflict can be found in the psychological literature, where various researchers describe the results of experiments. Thus, in one of the experiments, people were asked to compare the lengths of two segments (the difference in length was obvious). Based on the opinion of the majority (experimenter's assistants), 70% of subjects gave the wrong answer.
Members of a literary club gathered to discuss a book they had read. One of them did not like the author’s style, but everyone else spoke about the talented presentation and skillfully constructed storyline. As a result, the young man briefly said that he also liked the work. This is external conformity.

Examples of conformism from life

Conformists are all around us; Almost certainly, the reader of this text is, to one degree or another, a conformist. And it is not so rare to encounter people for whom following the “rules” has become the only meaning of existence.

We often become conformists in some social groups. For example, at a party a person drinks and even gets drunk “to hell” so as not to look strange among his friends, while in ordinary life this person does not drink and condemns alcoholism. Teenagers are conformists: they try to dress in a certain style, listen to certain bands, play certain games - all this specifically in order to fit into a certain group or some abstract community (be it rappers, metalheads and other subcultures).

Conformists largely shape the entire human culture. Any outstanding figure - a composer, writer, scientist or politician - needs fans, who in this case are conformists - they recognize his talent, recognize his ideas and obey his decisions. Even those who do not like the activities of a celebrity often hesitate to criticize her and, obeying the general opinion, praise her. This is how mainstream culture is formed, aimed at some average consumer; such a culture can appeal to most people, regardless of their personal beliefs and tastes. Thus, high-quality pop music (or “pop music”) is liked by fans of any “pop,” as well as by rockers, rappers, and even lovers of classical music.

Thanks to conformists, even money was created. At first, someone suggested that certain metals be considered precious and express the value of other goods through them, and the rest agreed, since there was a need for currency. Subsequently, the ruling circles proposed conventional means of exchange - paper and then electronic money, and again the majority of people agreed with this. It can be noted that in such important issues the specific form of the phenomenon does not play any role - society only needs the phenomenon itself as such; Therefore, society allows the question of the specific appearance of a phenomenon to be decided by some influential structures.

Monkey see - monkey do

Conformity is observed even in animals, which means that the phenomenon has quite deep evolutionary roots. For primates, following the majority is a learning process. The chimpanzee watches its relatives and repeats the action if it sees three other monkeys performing it (two-year-old children also have enough for others to repeat it three times). For example, a monkey will not get into a fight with a muscular male if he has previously seen how his relatives received humiliating bruises and bumps. “No thanks,” the weak primate will think and take a subordinate position without a fight. By repeating after others, chimpanzees also learn to make tools. There is a saying in English that describes this social learning phenomenon well: monkey see - monkey do.

Conformity also brings harm. In one experiment, scientists gave monkeys two baskets of corn: one containing corn colored pink and the other colored blue. The one color corn was delicious. Scientists made the other one bitter. After a month, the monkeys learned to eat only “tasty” colored corn. And they avoided “bitter” colored corn, even when scientists stopped spoiling its taste.

Babies born in the troop and migrant monkeys from other groups continued the food tradition - and chose corn of the same color as the rest. So half of the food was lost simply because the monkeys needed to “be like everyone else.”

The tendency toward conformity is found not only in primates closely related to us. Robert Sapolsky in his book “The Biology of Good and Evil” gives a funny example of how the opinion of the crowd helps the geese win the hearts of the geese. The gander took a liking to the goose, but she rejected him. But as soon as insidious experimenters surround the gander on all sides with stuffed geese - supposedly “all the girls are running after him” - the goose realizes that she has missed the best guy in the village - and quickly settles down next to him.