The SCIENCE of peer pressure

Perhaps you’re familiar with a psychological experiment where they showed lines of different lengths to people and asked them which of the lines was shortest.

Easy peasy! Or not.

The point of the experiment was that people had to answer in groups, and the whole group consisted of actors who said that the longest line was the shortest one, and the researchers found that many people agreed with the group even though it should be obvious that the group was wrong.

Peer pressure.

But then they followed up this experiment with a similar one, where they used brain scans to see what happened when these people made the decision to go along with the group. Apparently, what happens is that when the group says something, the individual starts to see the world that way, too. In other words, the people who went along with the ‘lie’ thought they were seeing a shorter line.

Scary.

But of course, there are always exceptions. Some people in these experiments did not go along with the group. So what happened in their brains? Well, there was a lot of activity in the yikes-I’m-going-to-be-socially-rejected parts (in layman’s terms). I’m thinking this may demand a lot of energy. I’m thinking if you’re the kind of person who regularly objects to the group consensus, you may wind up exhausted.

But what happens if you regularly think differently from your peers, but you never say anything? There must be some activity in that ‘yikes’ corner of the brain, even though you choose to keep quiet, right? And that activity, that latent I-should-say-something-to-balance-this-discussion-right-now-but-I-can’t-DEAL-with-the-weird-looks must be draining, mustn’t it?

Or am I just rationalizing my urge to watch Girls instead of washing the dishes? Hmm…