Obedience Or Conformity Essays

But our views on political issues, religious questions, and lifestyles also reflect to some degree the attitudes of the people we interact with.Similarly, decisions about behaviors such as smoking and drinking are influenced by whether the people we spend time with engage in these activities.The findings raise questions about the power of blind obedience in deplorable situations such as atrocities and genocide.

But our views on political issues, religious questions, and lifestyles also reflect to some degree the attitudes of the people we interact with.Similarly, decisions about behaviors such as smoking and drinking are influenced by whether the people we spend time with engage in these activities.The findings raise questions about the power of blind obedience in deplorable situations such as atrocities and genocide.

When he was a teenager, my son often enjoyed looking at photographs of me and my wife taken when we were in high school.

He laughed at the hairstyles, the clothing, and the kind of glasses people wore “back then.” And when he was through with his ridiculing, we would point out that no one is immune to fashions and fads and that someday his children will probably be equally amused by his high school photographs and the trends he found so normal at the time.

This danger was illustrated in a famous study in which participants were instructed to administer painful electric shocks to another person in what they believed to be a learning experiment.

Despite vehement protests from the person receiving the shocks, most participants continued the procedure when instructed to do so by the experimenter.

Social influence refers to the ways people influence the beliefs, feelings, and behaviors of others.

Each day we are bombarded by countless attempts by others to influence us, and as such, the study of social influence has long been a central topic of inquiry for social psychologists and researchers in many other social sciences (e.g., marketing, organizational behavior, political science).

Unfortunately, we frequently misperceive how the typical person acts, which can contribute to problems such as the excessive binge drinking often seen in college students.

Obeying orders from an authority figure can sometimes lead to disturbing behavior.

Everyday observation confirms that we often adopt the actions and attitudes of the people around us.

Trends in clothing, music, foods, and entertainment are obvious.