Page 45 - The Social Animal

Conformity 27

conform to the behavior or opinions of an individual who is similar
or important to us, or who appears to have expertise or authority in
a given situation. For example, research has shown that people are
more willing to comply with a demand from a person wearing a uni-
form than with someone in civilian clothes—even when it comes to
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relatively trivial matters. In one study, pedestrians were asked to
give spare change to a motorist (actually one of the experimenters)
who was parked at an expired meter. When the “motorist” was
dressed as a uniformed parking officer, participants complied with
her request far more often than when she was wearing either sloppy
clothes or professional business attire. Thus, the appearance of au-
thority—as potently symbolized by a uniform—can lend legitimacy
to a demand, thereby generating high rates of compliance.
On a broader level, popular writer Malcolm Gladwell sug-
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gests that major social trends often change dramatically and sud-
denly through the mechanism of conformity when certain kinds of
respected people happen to be in the right place at the right time.
He calls these sudden changes, when a major change reaches a crit-
ical mass, “the tipping point.” And he calls the people who induce
these changes “connectors.” These connectors can, by word of
mouth alone, turn a struggling restaurant into a popular, overflow-
ing place within a matter of weeks or can take a small trend (say,
the number of women requesting regular mammograms) and turn
it into an epidemic. According to Gladwell, connectors do not have
to be experts; they are simply people who seem to be “in the know”
and are talking about appropriate topics in appropriate places. How
can people who are not medical experts induce large numbers of
women to get regular mammograms? The place is important. In
this instance, the tipping point happened in places where women
(and only women) gather informally and have the leisure to talk
and listen to one another. The places were beauty salons, and the
connectors were beauticians.

Belonging Versus Getting Information

People have a powerful need to belong. Acceptance and rejection are
among the most potent rewards and punishments for social animals
because, in our evolutionary history, social exclusion could have