Find out more about this survey published in the April 2013 issue of « Ça m’intéresse » magazine.

We all dream of getting off the beaten track. A complicated ambition in a society that favours the opposite…

« I think, therefore I am », said Descartes. « They think, therefore I follow, » retorted the psychologists who have studied our conformist behavior. Examples abound: on December 21, 2012, the « Gangnam Style » video by South Korea’s Psy exceeded 1 billion views on YouTube, or 4,367 per second in 7 months! The Iphone 5 sold 5 million units worldwide in one weekend despite a higher price than competitors. The slim woman has become so much the archetype of feminine beauty that 90% of women believe that men are not attracted to curvaceous women. Finally, despite their desire to give their children original first names, parents follow fashion.

Sylvain Delouvée, lecturer in social psychology at Rennes II University and author of Pourquoi faisons-nous des choses stupides et irrationnelles (Dunod, 2011), points out that  » conformism takes on very different forms in everyday life. Respect for norms and rules, such as not talking during a play or following the highway code, also comes under this heading »… In 1958, the American social psychologist Herbert Kelman highlighted three degrees of this powerful social influence. Firstly, we can follow others by to avoid being noticed and getting into trouble. So, in a company, we respect the rules and habits: working hours, being on first-name terms, dress code… But our beliefs don’t budge an eyelash! Second type of conformism: identification. With friends, we adopt the customs of the group to fit in and avoid being left out. Finally, internalization is more subtle: we espouse the opinion of someone we consider an expert – a teacher, for example – to such an extent that we feel we’re willingly adhering to his or her judgment.

Salomon Asch’s famous 1951 experiment demonstrates the vertiginous pressure a group can exert. How does it work? Volunteers observe 4 vertical lines of different lengths, and have to find the one that is identical to the first. A child’s exercise. But if the guinea pigs are surrounded by other participants – in fact, the experimenter’s accomplices – and the latter deliberately make mistakes, the former give an average of 36.8% wrong answers. How do they fall for it? At the time, the trainees explained: confident, some were afraid to face the group. Others feared ridicule. Doubts about the correct solution even crept into their minds.

Magnetic waves to « cure » conformism!

Since then, similar experiences have qualified the original study. In fact, attitudes differ according to country, level of education and so on. In 1980, for example, a survey showed that British physics students were less impressed by the group. According to other studies, Norwegians show themselves to be slightly more impressionable than the French (but less so than the Chinese or Brazilians). Overall, women stand out less than men and the level of conformism has decreased over the last 50 years. What about children? In 2011, Daniel Haun and Michael Tomasello, from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, gave 4-year-old toddlers picture books: on each left-hand page appeared an animal family, e.g. bears with father, mother and cub. The right-hand page showed just one of the three. The aim of the experiment for the children, divided into groups of 4, was to say out loud which character they were talking about. But one of the 4 books showed a different character. How did the readers of the latter react when they heard the unanimous – but, in their opinion, wrong – opinions of their classmates? Out of 24, 18 followed the majority. On the other hand, when they were able to give the answer secretly to the experimenter, only 8 out of 18 got it wrong!

Recently, neuroscientists have come to the rescue of psychologists to assess our propensity for panurgism.. In fact, according to researchers at the University of Nijmegen (Netherlands), our brains are equipped with a sensor for the dominant ideology. To prove this, they placed volunteers in a scanner, showed them photos of faces and asked them which were the most attractive, while communicating the opinions of the other participants. Verdict: as soon as the individual’s opinion no longer matched that of the group, two brain areas, the nucleus acumbens and the rostral cingulate cortex – in other words, the error circuit – were activated. As a result, the guinea pigs modulate their judgment to match that of the group. « The brain seeks to blur the error signal, just as the thermostat seeks to reduce the difference between the measured temperature and the required temperature », explains Mathias Pessiglione, neuropsychologist and research fellow at Inserm’s Salpêtrière Hospital. More astonishingly, in 2012, neuroscientists succeeded in deactivating a conformist zone. (the posteromedial frontal cortex) using magnetic waves. Then they repeated the experiment with photos of faces. Result: the guinea pigs turned out to be less sheep-like.

Each of us is convinced that we do not belong to the herd.

Conversely, a simple nasal spray of oxytocin, the attachment hormone, reinforces group influence. In an experiment conducted in Amsterdam, volunteers were asked to rate geometric designs from 1 to 5. At the same time, they saw the scores given by others displayed on the screen. The result: the subjects who took a placebo didn’t let themselves be influenced to any great extent. On the other hand, the oxytocin-treated subjects gave more generous marks when the group did the same. In short, oxytocin promotes a feeling of closeness and thus the desire to imitate. These results suggest the kind of conformism that reigns within families and groups of friends… So, could a little manipulation be all it takes to silence the most independent minds? Not so simple! This research only concerns simple tasks, » stresses Damon Tomlin, a researcher at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. More complex decision-making would probably involve other circuits ».

If we are indeed programmed for conformity, it’s by design! « Our society considers a conformist individual to be suggestible and incapable of defending his or her own ideas, » confirms Sylvain Delouvée. In contrast, we value individualism, free thought and initiative. So much so, in fact, that we’re all convinced that we’re « an isolated individual among a flock of sheep », according to Emily Pronin, a psychology researcher at Princeton University. In the course of her studies, she has revealed that in areas as diverse as alcohol consumption, the purchase of fashionable brands or electronic devices, students always consider themselves less conformist than the average. But hard-core anti-conformists remain rare…

« If a society were populated only by originals, we’d be living in anarchy! »

« Not being a conformist means having the courage to stand alone against the crowd, to distinguish oneself from the masses, and therefore to take the risk of separating from the group, confronting the anguish of abandonment, solitude and death », analyzes Ariane Bilheran, doctor in psychopathology and author of Manipulation: la repérer, s’en protéger (Armand Colin). Anti-conformists may also succeed in freeing themselves from the shackles imposed by society. In their sights: the media, schools, advertising… « . Most media practice federative programming, which strives not to satisfy differentiated needs and aspirations, but to agglomerate consumers », says Henri Maler, philosopher, lecturer in political science and founder of Acrimed (Action Critique Médias). « Ariane Bilheran adds: « The media’s dissemination of scaremongering that arouses archaic fears, and their selection of identical scoops and information, largely inhibit critical thinking. Also in the dock is advertising, which offers a vision of a stereotyped world (the father in his nice car, the mother doing the washing for her family, etc.) but also exploits the role of the group, as shown by the spots highlighting the fact that « 99% of customers are satisfied ». Facebook’s « Like » button capitalizes on this effect, since users know which of their friends like a company’s page.

Back in the 18th century, Condorcet noted that the democratic system delivers sensible decisions, provided that voters ignore the decisions of their neighbors. However, polls are undermining this assumption. In 2012, between the 2 rounds of the presidential election, 1,000 voters were asked about their voting intentions. When the experimenter showed them a fictitious poll that ran counter to their initial idea, one respondent in 4 changed his or her opinion to that of the majority… The freezing of individual thoughts, the lack of critical thinking, induced by conformism, sometimes leads to the worst extremes. « Excessive conformism produces totalitarianism, which deprives the individual of his or her ability to think, when society says: don’t waste time thinking for yourself, we’ll think for you! » explains Michel Fize, sociologist at the CNRS and author of L’individualisme démocratique (L’œuvre, 2010).

However much it may be decried, conformity is not all bad news. According to evolutionary theory, if our brains are equipped with brain circuits that favor it, they must play a role in our survival. « Societies can only function if the majority of members conform to common rules », stresses Sylvain Delouvée. We’re social creatures: if everyone’s talking about the bestseller 50 Shades of Grey at the office coffee machine, we want to participate. « If a society were populated only by originals, we’d be living in anarchy, » adds Michel Fize. « Some individuals are particularly reassured by mainstream thinking, which prevents them from confronting their own existential angst, a form of submission that protects them from loneliness, » adds Ariane Bilheran.

 

It’s precisely to escape loneliness that teenagers are sometimes willing to do anything to sport an Abercrombie jacket or a Kaporal shirt. Adolescents suddenly find themselves propelled into a world of adults, and seek to group together with other young people to develop their autonomy, which I call collective autonomy, » explains Michel Fize. When we talk about adolescence, we’re talking about adolescents in the plural. It’s all about sudden conformism. The pressure on a schoolboy’s head is considerable. In 2009, Gregory Berns, a neuro-economist at Emory University, was astonished by the success of singer Miley Cyrus among teenagers, and asked himself a simple question: do they like her music, or do they listen to it to fit in? To find out, he asked them to rate trendy songs, blindly and then with a clue as to their popularity. During the experiment, he recorded their brain activity. When teenagers enjoyed a song, the nucleus caudate, the pleasure zone, was activated. But if they change their opinion when they see the audience for a video clip, the regions associated with anxiety and pain are activated. Conclusion: it’s the terror of being excluded that leads to a change of heart.

In these conditions, it’s not easy for young and old to impose their difference. So how do we keep our inner sheep? « Find allies! » advises Véréna Aebischer, lecturer in social psychology and co-author with Dominique Oberlé of « Le groupe en psychologie sociale » (Dunod, 2012). In his study, Asch had already shown that as long as another person supports your point of view, you resist conformism ». Ariane Bilheran goes even further: it’s imperative to create intimate spaces for oneself, to cultivate oneself, to travel. Only by being open to difference can you develop a critical mind and access other fields of consciousness… ».