How Peer Pressure Shapes Consensus, Leadership and Innovations in Social Groups Scientific Reports

For example, you may carry the pressure of academic achievement into your career. You may also face challenges like wanting to “keep up with the Jones’” and feel pressure to purchase items you cannot afford to maintain an image that fits into your work, social, or neighborhood environment. Even if no one tells the teenager to smoke a cigarette in the example above, the teen may still feel pressured by their peers to partake in the activity because it seems like everyone is doing it.

• It’s possible that a friend who is peer pressuring you simply wants to spend more time with you or connect with you, but they don’t know how else to ask.
• Passive or indirect peer pressure (hereafter referred to as indirect peer pressure) is a subtler or implicit form of pressure based on the perceived peer group norms regarding risky driving.
• That way, even if your child is peer pressured to do something they don’t want to do, they’ll feel comfortable coming to you to talk about it first.
• In analyzing PP we should consider not only those individuals directly linked to a particular person, but also those who exert indirect social influence over other persons as well5,6,7,8.

People often face negative peer pressure to drink alcohol, do drugs, or have sex. Natasha Duell is an assistant professor of psychology and child development at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In psychology from UC Irvine and her Ph.D. in psychology from Temple University. Natasha was also an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the department of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill.

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This type of peer pressure can be exemplified in fashion choices, personal interactions, social behaviors, teams, parties, media, and groups of friends, among others. Peer pressure interacts with many other factors, including family pressure and support, to affect the overall likelihood of alcohol and drug use. Research shows that people with certain personality traits may also be more vulnerable to peer pressure and that peer pressure affects adults, as well as children and adolescents.

• Adolescents who have larger circles of friends appear to be less influenced by the suggestions or actions of their peers, but the pressure to conform is very real at this age.
• Peer pressure is the direct or indirect influence on peers, i.e., members of social groups with similar interests, experiences, or social statuses.
• Leaders may emerge either randomly in response to particular historical circumstances or from the individual having the most prominent position (centrality) in the social network at any time.
• However, the opinions of peers have a more significant weight during our teen years, influencing how we choose what to do or what not to do.
• Here, we’ll talk about the different types of peer pressure and how young individuals can resist the temptation to give in.

Nonetheless, this type of pressure doesn’t have much effect on young people with a strong sense of themselves, beliefs, and morals, because it goes against their principles and simply cannot be accepted. Asking a teenager to engage in behavior that goes against his or her moral code or family values is a type of negative pressure. Adolescents see these acts in other young people and are faced with the difficult decision of choosing sides, following the negative leader, and https://ecosoberhouse.com/ turning away from behavior that goes against their ethical principles. Teenagers are people still struggling to find their true identity and meaning in life. They are too young to know that one should stand up for what they believe in, ranging from the tiniest of things like which ice cream flavour is the best one, to serious world issues such as political controversies. It is hard to say no to peer pressure because teenagers are always a little desperate to fit in.

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Broadly, Natasha’s research explores the psychological, social, and biological factors influencing young peoples’ decisions. She is especially interested in how certain contexts indirect peer pressure can lead teenagers to make good decisions. A key theme in her research is focusing on individual strengths and highlighting experiences of people from diverse backgrounds.

As expected the presence of these leaders reduces significantly the time for consensus in the network. In terms of controlling the system we show here that appropriate levels of indirect peer pressure allows that randomly emerging leaders could be as good as those occupying special positions or centrality in the network. Peer pressure is the direct or indirect influence on peers, i.e., members of social groups with similar interests, experiences, or social statuses.

Negative peer pressure

Many people consider peer pressure a negative thing, but this isn’t always the case. People, especially teens and young adults, may be more likely to do prosocial behaviors when they see people their own age doing the same things. For example, research has shown that teens with friends who volunteer are more likely to volunteer themselves. Peer pressure, or influence, comes in several forms, and these types of peer pressure can have a tremendous impact on a young person’s behavior.

Another area that has received great research attention is the diffusion of innovations26,27,28,29. The diffusion of innovations refers to the process through which new ideas and practices spread within and between social groups. Here we consider the hypothesis that PP plays a fundamental role in innovation adoption or rejection. To test our hypothesis, we study two datasets in which diffusion of innovations was followed for different periods of time (Supplementary Information). The first study analyzed the diffusion of a modern mathematic method among the primary and secondary schools in Allegheny County (Pennsylvania, USA).