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Stephen McClanahan

Mrs. Miller

Accelerated English

18 January 2011

Conformity And It’s Effect On The Future

Have you ever felt pushed to do something based on what others are doing,

whether you wanted to or not? Have you ever felt the urge to change what you believe in

order to “fit in”? If you said no, then you have just lied. Everyone experiences some form

of peer pressure, whether that pressure is for the better or worse. In general, the urge to

give in to social norms and standards is called conformity. Conforming is the act of

changing your thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and ideas in order to meet a standard set by

others. Conformity has been used since the rise of civilization as a means of control and

order. However, very few people know of or believe in the negative consequences of

social conformity. Should conformity continue to spread, the individual will lose

power to the collective, and can only be effectively stopped by the irony of anti-

conformity.

The idea of conformity is a fairly recent. While conformity has been used for

century’s to control, the thought of its negative consequences are fairly new. While

many’s first encounter with conformity’s connotations were from the crack theory’s of

counter-culture entrepreneurs, the first real encounter of what society could become

under the influence of conformity came in 1949 with George Orwell’s 1984. In his novel,

Orwell depicts a society completely obedient to its totalitarian government, and a group

of rebels who attempt to break free. He uses his novel in order to show what can come of
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blind conformity. Orwell’s depiction of an affected society is a strong representation of

what we as people should become if we let conformity run rampant.

Another philosopher studying the effects of conformity was Solomon Asch, a

professor at Swarthmore College. During the 1950’s, Asch performed a series of tests

involving individual choices and group choices in order to assess the conformist aspects

of the individual versus the collective. In his research, Asch found that as much as 75%

of a group changed the answers to his questions in order to fit in with the group, for

something as simple as discussing the different lengths of line. With numbers as shocking

as this, one can only think what else people conform too.

Using both Asch’s research and Orwell’s vision, we have a disturbing theory for

the future. A deadly consequence of “fitting in”, we will eventually lose our sense as

individuals. The only way we can combat such consequences is, ironically, to conform

against them and express one’s individuality by thinking for one’s self. I pray that we

continue towards a future where such drastic changes will effect our society.