Conformity, or biased opinions that result from group beliefs or opinions, often lead to influenced decisions, while sole ones are more free and unburdened. In this essay, I will explore the reasons behind group-based choices and explain how they differentiate from individual choices.
People crave a sense of role and belonging in society, so they follow the standards and social norms existing in society. From the studies of Harold Garfinkel, scientists conducted a social experiment in which people violated certain existing social norms in front of others. The recorded reactions to these breaches were often unfamiliarity and discomfort, followed by quickly trying to normalize it using different kinds of justifications and guidance.
Moreover, people try to fit into society often by joining or making groups. For instance, in the Solomon Asch experiment, people were to answer obvious comparative questions. However, when other fake participants chose wrong answers, the true test subjects started to also answer in a wrong way in order to “fit into” the group. Related studies have shown that over 90% of teens have experienced peer pressure in different forms and that 75% of adolescents have engaged in risky behaviors due to peer pressure or group conformity.
Peer pressure is a situation in which people are forced into doing something due to the pressure that is given by the people close to them. Since people want to have a healthy relationship with close ones and improve their image to others, they sometimes step up to another person’s offer when in reality they are not truly willing to do it.
In most packed groups, there is a factor called cancel culture that prevents people from “betraying” the group or leaving it. Cancel culture is a strategy for groups to punish group members that do something wrong in their terms. People in the group start to shame the individual and publicly denounce them.
Cancel culture is not limited to only certain social groups: this phenomenon can occur in any type of group, ranging from friend groups to highly sophisticated companies. For instance, the drink company Pepsi was publicly cancelled after their advertisement that featured Kendall Jenner, in which Pepsi was condemned for appropriating a black lives matter protest.
Also, according to numerous psychological studies, cancel culture can cause increased anxiety, social isolation, self-censorship, emotional distress, and psychological harm to the target and make the ones participating in imposing it feel moral superiority, empowerment and increased anger. Through this, we can see that humans feel more empowerment and a heightened state of power when they are in a certain group. Moreover, the support that is present in groups may take part in creating a certain confidence for people to take part and try at new things they are normally fearful to do.
Acting and making choices in groups may have different impacts on the actions people take. While individual choices provide freedom to people’s actions, being subjected to a group makes choices more burdened and forced rather than having a sense of freedom. Thus, in the end, the difference between group choices and individual ones is about the burden and pressure group choices have compared to sole ones, either for the better or the worse.
Citations:
Woodstockschool.in. (2022). Woodstock | Into the Breach. [online] Available at: https://www.woodstockschool.in/breaching-excercises/ [Accessed 1 Aug. 2025].
Mcleod, S. (2023). Solomon Asch Conformity Line Experiment Study. [online] Simply Psychology. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html.
Laursen, B. and Veenstra, R. (2021). Toward Understanding the Functions of Peer influence: a Summary and Synthesis of Recent Empirical Research. Journal of Research on Adolescence, [online] 31(4), pp.889–907. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12606.
Payne, L. and Ramanathan, T. (2025). Cancel culture | Definition, Origins, Examples, & Politics. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/cancel-culture.
Victor, D. (2017). Pepsi Pulls Ad Accused of Trivializing Black Lives Matter. The New York Times. [online] 5 Apr. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/kendall-jenner-pepsi-ad.html.
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