Society has a strong influence on our behavior and attitude, especially when it comes to collective actions.
The decisions we make as our own, or the way we run our lives, are conditioned by society. All this is the result of what is right to do, what we believe we should do in the opinion of the majority or the procedures that we are used to perceiving.
From childhood we felt an urgent need to belong to a group with family and class group. In addition, we have dependence or interdependence on these, since they provide us with security and social inclusion.
Currently this need is increasing due to the number of groups that exist from social networks and the ease of connections through the Internet..
Social pressure reaches its greatest splendor in adolescence. It is a type of pressure that conditions the formation of the personality of young people. It also gives rise to certain negative practices, sometimes out of the will, just to be accepted..
Social pressure continues throughout life and in a certain way affects our actions and ideas.
I recently did the reading of the story with a student "The Emperor's Suit".
When we came to analyze it, the child found it difficult to understand why the townspeople praised the beauty of a non-existent costume if in reality the Emperor was naked, Why did they lie? Why did they consider that their answer would be stupid if it was not the same as that of the rest of the citizens?
There are numerous studies that show how a person changes his mind if the rest of the group has a common opinion even if it is contrary to his. All with the aim of obeying social conformity and feeling accepted.
Salomon asch, Renowned psychologist in this field, he carried out several experiments to verify how social pressure exerted by peers, either at work or in other fields, can influence the test subject's judgment.
In one case, he gathered eight subjects, seven of whom were actors. The test consisted of answer a series of simple questions that had nothing to do with the subject of study.
The actors had guidelines for progressively wrong answers. As a consequence, the innocent individual ended up giving in his answers submitted by peer pressure, and questioning their own ideas.
Along these lines we find other studies on social pressure and influence, such as that of Father Zimbardo with the Standford Prison Experiment, about which a movie was shot (“The experiment”).
In this film the events that occurred are recreated, and you can see how they get to exceed their own limits under strong social pressure.
Other authors such as E. Aronson or L. Festinger also tested certain phenomena of Social Psychology, comparing the values on a group, previously issued individually., and later in front of the social group, which varied remarkably.
We can say then that we often act in accordance with the social group in which we live, even though it is different from what we really think. Out of fear of rejection, out of desire for acceptance, out of lack of security. Social cognition plays an important role in this regard.
Is it beneficial to be carried away by social pressure? Should we be firm in our principles when acting even against the opinion of the majority? Does society really condition our life so much?
It would be good to reinforce individual security and independence, as well as our own beliefs, while still maintaining social respect, but without forgetting ourselves.
From the first years it is necessary to educate in values and strengthen self-esteem, to deal with social pressure adequately.
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