Conformity can be risky business

by Charley Button

Conformity By Simon aka Flyblog

You leave the bar with your friends to head home for the night. They cross the street despite the red hand signaling “Don’t Walk.” You weigh the potential risk of oncoming traffic against ostracization from your group. In this scenario, you can either break the law by jaywalking or break with your friends momentarily. A self-preservation instinct to maintain group identity conflicts with your concern for safety and your law-abiding conscience.

When social and internal pressures compete, societal expectations habitually win out to the detriment of the individual. According to research by McGhie, Lewis, and Hyde (2011), the more you identify with a group, the more likely you are to conform to group behaviors such as “drink walking.” Their study examined the influence of psychosocial factors on individuals’ intentions to drink walk, on a scale of 1 to 7, across four scenarios. These scenarios manipulated the independent variables of high/low conformity and high/low group identity. Each incorporated a risky crossing situation, such as an intoxicated pedestrian walking against a red hand signal. Of the 151 Australian undergraduate students given this questionnaire, a large majority of individuals admitted elevated intentions to drink walk in the presence of their “closest friends” (high group identity), or when their friends were crossing in spite of the red hand signal (high conformity). When alone or with strangers (lacking group identity), subjects reported significantly lower intentions to disobey signals.

In heightened stakes, prioritizing “fitting in” over safety can lead to more serious misjudgments than ignoring pedestrian signals. Research suggests that juvenile crime is strongly influenced by peer behavior, as argued by Patacchini and Zenou (2009). Gang activity accounts for a large portion of underage lawbreaking and demonstrates the impact of neighborhood on social activities and on attitude toward the law. Patacchini and Zenou’s study revealed that petty crimes seem to be inspired by observed behavior of peers and replicated within groups, according to a desire to conform to the group’s norm. Criminal behavior of adolescents can rarely be explained on an individual basis.

In many circumstances, the need for group identity somehow overrides concern for safety, legality, or truth. Young people especially will risk their health and go against their better (individual) judgment, assimilating to a crowd’s bad decision. As Asch (1951) discovered, individuals will doubt their own judgment of the length of a line when contradicted by a group of at least three people. In order to blend in we disregard what our own eyes perceive, even when the norm is incorrect or inadvisable.

Whether it is jumping into the road or jacking a car, you are more likely to do it if your friends are. Take note though: the evolutionary importance of group identity is only beneficial if large numbers contribute to survival. When the group makes bad decisions, the individual’s wellbeing should take priority. To quote everybody’s mother, “If your friends walked off a cliff, would you follow them?”

A certain sense of morality

By Victoria Velasco

train wreck by woodleywonderworks

The train problem consists of two scenarios. In the first, one must pull a lever to direct a moving train away from five people and toward one person, and in the second, one must push a person under a train, thereby stopping it in time to save five people. In a wide survey, many people regarded the option in the first scenario to be ethical, however, an overwhelming number of subjects strongly dissented the morality of the second scenario, yet they were unable to articulate the ethical difference from the first scenario (Hauser, Cushman & Young, 1997). In both situations one is asked to harm one for the good of the community. The sources of this inconsistency are, according to a recent article by Steven Pinker, universal morals.

In a recent study, fMRI’s monitored brain activity when subjects were presented with the “train problem” (Greene, 2001). In all subjects considering the first scenario, only the area of the frontal lobes linked to logic, showed any signs of excessive activity. However, when presented with the second scenario, the medial area of the frontal lobes, linked to interpersonal emotions, as well as that linked to logic and the anterior cingulate cortex, which registers conflicts between different urges. These findings, as well as those of the previous study illustrate moral battle between emotions and logic, and the universal victory of emotions.

Another experiment on universal morality focused on Rhesus monkeys illustrates the sense of community and avoidance of harm of community members (Masserman, 1964). Operator monkeys were trained to pull a chain to receive food, and another chain when signaled with a red and blue light, respectively, however on the fourth day of the experiment, the monkeys were paired, and when the operator monkey pulled the chains, the other would receive a shock. Two-thirds of the monkeys showed discretion in pulling the chains, especially after receiving the shocks, and if they had previous interaction with their pair, and many of the monkeys even avoided pulling the chains to feed themselves.

Too quick to judge? Maybe not.

by Jason Adler

pedalpalooza - bicycle speed dating by BikePortland.org

She seems down-to-earth. He is going to be annoying. That girl has to be rich. That guy must be outgoing. She is humorous. He is nice. She is definitely neurotic. That girl has to be dependable. These were my first impressions of my peers in my student fellow group less than 30 seconds after meeting them. Such thoughts are ubiquitous and indispensable in daily life, as when we first meet people, we instinctively judge and form conclusions in a brief amount of time. Whether or not first impressions really are everything, they are prevalent and are surprisingly accurate. Perceptions of traits are formed through the cognitive process of intuition based on seconds of behavior; a concept that can be referred to as thin slices.
In a study performed by Carney, Colvin, and Hall (2007) at Northeastern University, the accuracy of first impressions based on thin slices was examined by looking at judgments, thin slice length, and slice location. Three hundred student judges observed 30 subjects, 15 dyads (groups of two), engage in conversation and then judged social constructs by rating the subject’s traits on a scale. These social constructs included states of positive affect (happy) and negative affect (sad), cognitive ability, and the “Big Five” traits of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The thin slices, exposure of behavior, varied in time ranging from 5 to 300 seconds and the location of the thin slice was taken either at the beginning, middle, or end of the conversation. The trait perceptions of the student judges were then measured against trait perceptions from trained coders who were given specific items to measure constructs such as moody for neurotic or kind for agreeable. The researchers found that for every construct, the judges perceptions were significantly accurate, defined as much greater than chance, suggesting that thin slices lead to accurate impressions. In addition, the researchers generally found that thin slices taken later in the conversation were generally more accurate. Furthermore, increased exposure improves the accuracy of impressions for positive affect, extraversion, and agreeableness. However, increasing exposure does not improve the accuracy of conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, negative affect, and intelligence. The researchers surmised that all those traits fall into threat or intelligence and quick judgments of these traits are important to life or death situations (Run away or pet the tiger).

It is not surprising that if impressions of personality traits can be made using thin slices then accurate judgments regarding sexual orientation can also be made using brief observations. In a study performed by Ambady, Hallahan, and Conner (1999) judgments of sexual orientation were made based on a 10 second silent video clip, a one second silent video clip, or eight photographs. The results show that very accurate impressions of sexual orientation can be made using thin slices. Homosexual men and women seem to be better at identifying sexual orientation with diminishing amounts of information, while women, in general, are better at identifying sexual orientation at all levels. In addition, the judges made more accurate impressions when identifying lesbian women than gay men. A following study showed that even without static indicators such as jewelry and clothing, impressions are still very accurate. The researchers interpret that the ability to perceive traits regarding sexual orientation may be adaptive to finding romantic partners and reducing hostility.
Further research has also yielded valuable information regarding thin slices and first impressions. Ambady and Gray (2002) have shown  that sadness impairs the ability to draw behavioral inferences. Ambady and Gray propose that negative moods resulted in a more careful, deliberate study of behavior rather than intuitive process; a strategy that significantly reduces accuracy of trait perception and may explain why depression reduces sociability.