Why do we always conform to the majority? The difference between the opinions of the majority and the minority has always been a controversial problem in our daily life. Although no one can simply clarify which side is better, most of the time, the majority’s opinion will be regarded as a better choice to follow. In Brooke Gladstone’s book, The Influencing Machine, the author demonstrates her idea about beliefs and actions, “Our actions and beliefs are driven more by our impulses and bias we never knew we had”(117). Gladstone’s words about behaviors and bias are surely right, as she may not be aware, those words explain that to a certain extent, our conformity to the majority’s behaviors and beliefs is driven by an existing bias that the
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Our thoughts are more similar with the group’s, thinking that of course those behaviors against the majority are hard to understand or will even be regarded as wrong. That is to say, we regard our beliefs as norms and reject difference. We implicitly divide those opponents into a separate group, namely the minority where some of us initially belong. The majority is to us as the fire to the prisoners in socrates’ words of the allegory of the cave. The fire of the majority reflects a series of shadows representing stereotypes and biases through different kinds of social propagandas on the wall of the reality. We, the prisoners, think that what we see and hear is obviously true and feel satisfied with them without any consideration. If the opinions from the minority contradict with our belief, most of the time, we think those who don’t belong to our group are ridiculous. Besides, as the scientific study shows, while thinking about the issue, we are even using totally different area of our brain depending on whether the subject is in our group or out of the group. In a video about social neuroscience, social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji indicated that while the subject we are talking about is in our group, the …show more content…
For instance, conformity helps us build a harmonious and stable society. Our society is based on moral rules and laws which regulate our behaviors in different aspects morally and legally. The majority of the society are obeying those rules and principle so as to behave legally and contribute to a harmonious society. At that time, conformity to the majority prevents people from doing illegal things to interrupt the stabilization of the society.“Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society”( Bernays,9). Facing the rules and the laws, conformity to the majority is the manner needed to create a “smoothly functioning society”. What if they become the immoral and illegal minority, they will be condemned by the virtual rules and even be punished by the law. In addition, conformity enables us to enhance group cohesion. The stronger the cohesion of the group is, the more united the group becomes. Communication is one kind of strongest power contributing to group cohesion. While we are conforming to the majority and doing the same thing with others, it is easier for us to establish some common grounds and communicate with each others. We can get to know each others and get familiar with their personalities and traits through communication. Only if we have enough communication, can we gain the sense
Our thoughts are more similar with the group’s, thinking that of course those behaviors against the majority are hard to understand or will even be regarded as wrong. That is to say, we regard our beliefs as norms and reject difference. We implicitly divide those opponents into a separate group, namely the minority where some of us initially belong. The majority is to us as the fire to the prisoners in socrates’ words of the allegory of the cave. The fire of the majority reflects a series of shadows representing stereotypes and biases through different kinds of social propagandas on the wall of the reality. We, the prisoners, think that what we see and hear is obviously true and feel satisfied with them without any consideration. If the opinions from the minority contradict with our belief, most of the time, we think those who don’t belong to our group are ridiculous. Besides, as the scientific study shows, while thinking about the issue, we are even using totally different area of our brain depending on whether the subject is in our group or out of the group. In a video about social neuroscience, social psychologist Mahzarin Banaji indicated that while the subject we are talking about is in our group, the …show more content…
For instance, conformity helps us build a harmonious and stable society. Our society is based on moral rules and laws which regulate our behaviors in different aspects morally and legally. The majority of the society are obeying those rules and principle so as to behave legally and contribute to a harmonious society. At that time, conformity to the majority prevents people from doing illegal things to interrupt the stabilization of the society.“Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society”( Bernays,9). Facing the rules and the laws, conformity to the majority is the manner needed to create a “smoothly functioning society”. What if they become the immoral and illegal minority, they will be condemned by the virtual rules and even be punished by the law. In addition, conformity enables us to enhance group cohesion. The stronger the cohesion of the group is, the more united the group becomes. Communication is one kind of strongest power contributing to group cohesion. While we are conforming to the majority and doing the same thing with others, it is easier for us to establish some common grounds and communicate with each others. We can get to know each others and get familiar with their personalities and traits through communication. Only if we have enough communication, can we gain the sense