Social Media’s Influence to Conformity

While social media has allowed us to stay constantly connected

The effect of sharing on social media leads to acts of conforming to others’

feedback

Consider the following experiment:      

In a world of mass customization, an automaker offers 14 different choices for customers to design their own

vehicles

Of 833 consumers, the 149 of them who asked for feedback on social media brought bigger changes to their initial design,

especially when they had distinguishing features.

Overall, the resulting cars from those who received feedback had features far less distinctive than those who did not.

This experiment comes to show that social influence and conformity are

ever present in our digital era.

It is important as users to understand the pressures of conformity.

What is conformity?

It is the change in behaviour as a result of perceived pressure from a group

   There are three main types

of conformity

Compliance

The act to comply behaviour publicly but disagree privately in personal views

First type

So why comply?

There are many reasons to comply:

•  A low self-esteem or high anxiety •  A lack of further knowledge, so comply to expert •  An ambiguous or crisis situation, exposing an individual

to unfamiliar territory leads to adopting social norms

Most importantly though...

To gain group approval, from a low self-esteem to a liking of the group, individuals seek social

acceptance

Dangers of Social Media

Connected to everyone, social media makes conformity an increasing concern

Your opinion posted on social media is permanent!

With thousands of friends online, the last thing you want is to become the odd man out.

A jewelry designer who asked 1,092 women to create their own earrings while being consulted by

online friends.

Take for example

  The women who received consultation from peers were far more likely to change their initial and final designs and had

a harder time to decide.

At the end, they were less satisfied with their final result.  

A follow-up research a few weeks later asked the women if they wanted to sell the jewelry back.

Of 46 women, the average woman who got feedback from social media wore their earrings one third less and were willing to sell

them for 14 francs while women who had no social media influence requested at least 40 francs.

But let’s delve a little deeper…

Conformity on social media can have many consequences like loss of innovation and creativity on the individual

But can also be detrimental to companies who seek customer loyalty through customization, as seen in the previous example

Identification

Second type

The act to change public behaviour as well as personal views. It is a deep process led by the exposition of other people’s views.

The most notorious example is during World War II, when many non-Jewish individuals conformed to Hitler’s

anti-Semitic views

“Be sure your brain is engaged before your mouth (or fingers) move!”

-Joe Mosed Jr.

But conformity is not all bad

The Voting Experiment  

A study shows that, with social media, the increasing number of posts from your friends voicing their political view will lead you to heighten

the importance of the elections. Awareness will bring you to go vote and

overall, a higher percentage of individuals voted as a

result.

Internalization

The act of permanent change in personal views This is when people discover their identity, which can be

accelerated through social media

And lastly, the third type

As digital users, it is important to be aware of the conformity surrounding you when making decisions

So while social media can increase awareness and self-actualization, its influence to conform

has as much of its risks.

Works Cited

•  http://hbr.org/2013/07/conformity-and-the-crowd/ar/1 •  http://www.lucifereffect.com/guide_conform.htm •  http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/hrcr11/hsadat2.html •  http://wps.prenhall.com/

hss_aronson_socpsych_6/64/16428/4205685.cw/-/4205769/index.html

•  http://talkingclimate.org/guides/using-social-norms-social-networks-to-promote-sustainable-behaviour/

•  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/conformity

Pictures retrieved from personal photo album, Google and Flickr under CC