A Case Study on Peer Pressure
Why is social pressure so great during adolescence?
Articles within this series
- Overview
- The Agony of Inferiority
- Stemming the Tide of Peer Pressure
- A Case Study on Peer Pressure
- Adolescent Rebellion
- Next Steps / Related Information
Card Game
A team of doctors decided to conduct an experiment to study the ways in which group pressure influences young people. To accomplish this, they invited 10 teenagers into a room and told them they were going to evaluate their “perception” to learn how well each student could “see” the front of the room from where he sat.
Actually, all the teenagers were very close to the front of the room and everybody could see quite easily. What the doctors were actually studying was not the eyesight of the students, but the effects of group pressure.
The doctors said, “We’re going to hold up some cards at the front of the room. On each card are three lines — Line A, Line B, Line C, each of different length. In some cases Line A will be the longest; in other cases Line B will be the longest, and in still other cases Line C will be the longest. Several dozen cards will be shown with the lines in a different order. We’ll hold them up and point to Line A, Line B and Line C on each card. When we point to the longest line, please raise your hand to show that you know it is longer than the others.” They repeated the directions to make sure everybody understood, and then raised the first card and pointed to the top line.
Object of the Game
What one student didn’t know was that the other nine had been secretly informed earlier to vote for the second longest line. In other words, they were told to vote wrongly.
The doctors held up the first card and pointed to Line A, which was clearly shorter than Line B. At this point, all nine students cooperated in the scheme and raised their hands. The fellow being studied looked around in disbelief. It was obvious that Line B was the longest line, but everybody seemed to think Line A was longer.
He later admitted that he thought, I must not have been listening during the directions. Somehow I missed the point, and I’d better do what everybody else is doing or they’ll laugh at me. So he carefully raised his hand with the rest of the group. Then the researchers explained the directions again: “Vote for the longest line; raise your hand when we point to the longest line.”
It couldn’t have been more simple! Then they held up the second card, and again, nine people voted for the wrong line. The confused fellow became more tense over his predicament, but eventually he raised his hand with the group once again. Over and over he voted with the group, even though he knew they were wrong.
This one young man was not unusual. In fact, more than 75 percent of young people tested behaved that same way. They sat there time after time, saying a short line was longer than a long line! They simply didn’t have the courage to say, “The group is wrong. I can’t explain why, but you guys are all confused.” A small percentage — only 25 out of 100 — had the courage to take their stand against the group, even when the majority was obviously wrong. This is what peer pressure does to an insecure person.
Power of a Friend
Another interesting characteristic was revealed by this study. If just one other student recognized (voted for) the right line, then the chances were greatly improved that the fellow who was being studied would also do what he thought was right. This means that if you have even one friend who will stand with you against the group, you probably will have more courage, too. But when you’re all by yourself, it’s pretty difficult to take your stand alone.
Now this raises an interesting question. Why is social pressure so great during adolescence? Why are we so afraid of being rejected by the group? Why must we do what we’re told by those of our same age? Why can’t we be independent? The answer to these questions goes back to the subject of inferiority.
When you feel worthless and foolish — when you don’t like yourself — then you are more frightened by the threat of ridicule or rejection by your friends. You become more sensitive about being laughed at. You lack the confidence to be different. Your problems seem bad enough without making them worse by defying the wishes of the majority. So you dress the way they tell you to dress, and you talk the way they tell you to talk, and all your ideas are the group’s ideas.
You become afraid to raise your hand for what you know is right, or to express any of your own views. Your desire is to behave in the “safest” way possible. These behaviors all have one thing in common: They result from feelings of inferiority.
This article was adapted from Preparing for Adolescence: How to Survive the Coming Years of Change by Dr. James Dobson with the permission of Gospel Light/Regal Books (Ventura, CA 93003). Copyright 1989.