The Perils of Conformity

Higher morale and greater happiness contribute to the success of clans, religions, sports teams, companies, nations, and any group to which a person belongs. However, groups encourage and sometimes enforce conformity with possible adverse effects.

Conformity means behavioral uniformity in addition to shared beliefs. Such predictability helps groups function, but it can be hard on the individual. Where did these conforming tendencies come from?

The Origins of Conformity

Some level of conformity is present in all societies. Fifteen thousand years ago, tribal groups in a specific location designed arrowheads in the same way, and their arrows were different from those of neighboring peoples.¹

Conformity is found in clothing designs, with members of a tribe dressing similarly. Conformity may be as old as the species. As societies urbanized and became increasingly complex, conformity pressures increased. For example, everyone in an urban society pays taxes, but there was no taxation in subsistence societies. Of course, they did not receive the benefits of road networks, public health, safe drinking water, etc.

Taxation is predicated on a system of complex rules that dictate payment obligations. Taxpayers are expected to master these rules sufficiently to comply with them. That is no mean feat in the U.S., where the tax code is said to measure approximately three-quarters of a million pages.

While the complexity of the tax code and the legal system, more generally, is managed mostly by lawyers, lawmakers, and tax accountants, conformity extends its baleful effects into the everyday lives of ordinary people.

Conformity and Ethnic Intolerance

Conformity pressures keep social groups together. For example, simple gestures such as wearing the company T-shirt help employees feel more connected to their job. Unfortunately, positive in-group feelings may be counteracted by out-group hostility.

An ethnic group may hold an unflattering impression of another group. Myanmar's leaders exploited this phenomenon to incite genocide against the Rohinga minority using Facebook – then a novel phenomenon in the country – to spread malicious propaganda.

Just as partisans wave their flag, they also spout party propaganda. Conformity to hateful stereotypes is arguably the single greatest psychological cause of political conflict in the world.

If an ethnic division is a potent source of conflict in the political arena, most of us spend our time competing over money and social status.

Conformity and Consumerism

Economic competition involves status distinctions that involve conforming to expectations about how people of a certain income level should behave. If you are an oligarch, you need to spend at least one hundred million dollars on a stately home.

For most, economic success is expressed by ownership of status goods, such as fashionable new cars or expensive designer clothes. The social value of such luxury goods is sometimes pushed to absurd extremes, such as members of street gangs killing each other over a pair of designer sunglasses.

Similarly, poor people may remain in poverty for their entire lives, and make it impossible to contemplate retirement, simply because they buy cars that cost more than they can really afford. While this spending pattern may reflect wages that are too low, it also means that scarce money is not wisely spent.

These phenomena create great wealth for luxury manufacturers and their shareholders.

Conformity pressures contribute to a pattern of over-consumption that is good for businesses but bad for individuals and the planet's health.

Just as we pay too much for transport, we also live in absurdly oversized homes with about four times as much square footage per person compared to a century ago. This is a complex phenomenon, but it involves keeping up with the Joneses. That competition is very bad for our carbon footprint.

Over-consumption takes many forms, from buying too many fashionable clothes to eating meals that are too large. Health researchers found that poor people eat out more often in unequal societies – where economic competition is more intense. They also consume portions that are too large. Their health suffers. So, conspicuous consumption may cause obesity and related diseases.²

Conformity Essential Reads

Dress Down for Success: When Nonconformity Signals Status

You Are a Conformist (That Is, You Are Human)

Social media exacerbate conformity pressures with adverse impacts on health and happiness.

Conformity and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

The harmful effects of social media received a lot of publicity given the link between the use of Instagram and Facebook and increased body dissatisfaction and eating disorders among teenage girls. Boys suffer from body dissatisfaction also and become obsessed with bulking up to emulate bodybuilders' posts.

Then there are the influencers who depict the good life in social media posts that elicit envy from followers who wish to emulate them. Beneath the perfect facade, one may discover real people who are desperately unhappy and socially isolated. Faking does not mean making it.