Social Influence Research Paper 2022

Running head: SOCIAL INFLUENCE
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Human beings are social creatures and therefore have to follow the rules and norms of
society to survive. The human brain, though is more advanced than other animals who live in
social groups, possess mirror neurons which allow in matching emotions of other individuals’
emotions unconsciously (Tang, Wu & Sun, 2013). Humans anticipate and mirror each other’s
actions and thoughts when conforming to similar ideas. In order to exist in specific social groups,
they use techniques to influence others in conforming to their own set of ideas. In the following
paper, similar concepts would be discussed through personal accounts and experiences.
My process of growing up involved travelling a lot across the country because of my
parents’ job requirements. There were instances where I had trouble mixing with certain groups
of my peers and friends. On one of such instances, while I had just moved to a new city, I
acquainted myself with a group of teenagers, close to my age. This group of individuals were
considered vandals and rebels and were not seen as a good influence on the children in the
locality. This was the first instance where I experienced a cultural shift in my own age group and
the concept of conformity was instilled in me. Conformity can be defined as a type of social
influence which involves changing one’s opinion and behaviour in order to fit into a group (Kim
& Hommel, 2015). I had to change my views and style of thinking in order to match with the
group. The culture of the group was also very contrasting to what I had seen in my other
previous groups as well, being more liberal and accepting. The concept of culture says that it is
the set of ideas, behaviours, attitudes, and traditions that exist within large groups of people.
These cultural nuances in a group significantly impact conformity (Hodges, 2014).
Another experience, which was not as easy to conform to, took place in my recent past.
This had happened in high school when I and few of my peers were placed under one of the
teachers at the institution I attended. The individual would only grade those students well who