Stop. Pay attention. Take a look at this crowded waiting room. These people may appear to be waiting for the eye doctor but they're actually waiting for the first test subject in our hidden camera experiment. And here she is right on time for her 12 o'clock appointment.
How are you doing? This woman thinks she's here for a free eye exam. Have you been here before?
No, it's my first time. What she doesn't know is that everyone else in this room is working for us. They'll be with you in just a couple minutes. Today we're running an experiment on social conformity and the test starts now.
Did you hear that? These people sure did. It doesn't take long for our test subject to notice a pattern.
Beep means stand up. But why? And if you were in her shoes, what would you do the next time the tone sounds? While you might think you make your decisions all on your own, when it comes to peer pressure, all too often, your brain is just following the crowd.
It's all around you every day an invisible force You're probably not even aware of it affects what you do how you think and who you are It's called social conformity or peer pressure and while it might not sound like a good thing, it's actually not so bad. The truth is your brain craves synchronicity and takes comfort in the ease and efficiency of just going with the flow. And whether it's simply knowing what to wear in the morning, supporting your team at the big game, or even marching off to war, we're all programmed to be part of the group and that's because your brain knows that there's power in numbers. We set up a hidden camera experiment to see if this woman would stand up at the sound of this tone simply because everyone else is.
You might be thinking you'd never go along with this. Or would you? After just three beeps, and without knowing why she's doing it, this woman is now conforming perfectly to the group.
But what happens if we take the group away? Elaine, please. Okay, now she's alone.
The crowd is gone and nobody is watching her, except our hidden cameras. What do you think she'll do? She's now conforming to the rules of the group without them even being there. Now watch what happens when we introduce another outsider who doesn't know the rules.
Have a seat and they'll be out in just a couple minutes. Thanks so much. Think she'll teach the new guy what to do? We kept the cameras rolling as more unsuspecting patients arrived.
And slowly but surely, what began as a random rule for this woman has now become the social norm for everyone in this waiting room. Here to explain what's going on in their brains is Jonah Berger of the University of Pennsylvania. This sort of internalized form of herd behavior is part of what we call social learning. Starting at a very early age, when we see members of our group perform a task, our brains literally reward us for our behavior. following in their footsteps.
When I saw everybody stand up, I felt like I needed to join them. Otherwise, I'm, like, excluded. Once I decided to go with it, then I felt much more comfortable. Conformity is how we become socialized, but it can also cause us to develop bad habits or repeat past wrongs. And it's why even this rebel, who wasn't standing for any of this nonsense, eventually joined the ranks.
And the only thing more shocking than seeing how easily conformity affects the way you act is that similar forces are subconsciously shaping the way you think right now.