The Pressure to Conform|请你跟我这样做

The Pressure to Conform

by Brian Foden

You might not be as individualistic as you think.

　　Many people like to think of themselves as individualistic. This means that they consider their thoughts and actions to be independent of and largely unaffected by other people. In reality, most individuals are influenced a great deal by the groups they are in. Accepting opinions that are contrary to your own and following what others do is called conformity. Social psychologists have long studied this phenomenon and the reasons behind it. They have concluded that most people are conformists to some degree and that there are many reasons why everyone follows the crowd. One is that humans have a strong need to be accepted by others. If individuals disagree with the majority or refuse to conform to norms, they may face rejection, embarrassment, or even humiliation. Social scientists believe that because these feelings are painful, people are motivated to conform, and thus maintain their sense of comfort.

　　One of the most famous social experiments regarding conformity is a test conducted by Solomon Asch in 1951. In that experiment, people were shown a card with a single line and then asked to identify which line on another card with a set of three lines it matched in height. Unbeknownst to the test subjects was the fact that the others in the group were all assistants who were all told to give the same wrong answers. The study found that 75 percent of the subjects also gave the same wrong answers due to responses from the experimenter's assistants.

　　In many ways, conformity has a positive effect on society because it acts to socialize people and motivate them to follow necessary regulations and codes of conduct. On the other hand, conformity can lead to cases where people follow a mob mentality and rationalize atrocious behavior because everyone is doing it.

 

 

请你跟我这样做

你可能没有自己所想的那么个人主义。

　　许多人喜欢将自己视为一个独立的个体。这意味着他们认为自己的思想和行为都是独立的，而且大多不会受到他人影响。事实上，大多数人都受所在的团体影响甚深。接受和自己想法相反的意见并跟随他人所做的事情，这称为从众行为。社会心理学家长期研究这种现象以及其背后的原因。他们已经得出一个结论，那就是在某种程度上，大多数的人都是从众者，而每个人之所以会跟随大众行为的原因有很多。其中一个原因是因为人们强烈需要得到他人的认同。如果个人不同意大多数人的意见或是拒绝遵从规范，他们可能会面临被排斥、难堪或甚至是羞辱的情形。社会学家认为，因为这些感觉令人觉得很痛苦，使得人们会去顺从，并以此来维持他们的安心感。

　　其中一项有关从众行为最有名的社会实验是由所罗门‧阿希于 1951 年所进行的测试。在那项实验中，人们会看到一张有单一线条的卡，接着他们会被要求辨别出另一张卡上的三条线中，哪一条与其高度相等。受试者不知情的是，在团体中的其他人都是被要求回答同样错误答案的助理。这项研究发现，由于实验助理所给予的回应，百分之七十五的受试者会回答同样的错误答案。

　　在许多方面，从众行为对于社会有正面的效果，因为它有使人融入群体的作用，并能促进他们遵循必要的规则以及行为规范。而另一方面说来，从众行为可能会导致人们追随暴徒的心态，并将残酷的行为合理化，因为大家都那样做。