4.3.2.3  Extended Peer-group Influence on Behaviour

(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)

Peer group pressure is exerted between people who regard each other as equals within a circle of acquaintance.  People can influence each other within wider society, affecting acquaintances and even strangers:

·      Imitation can lead to new fashions and behavioural norms, as with the hippy phenomenon in the 1960s.[1]

·      People can show approval or disapproval of another’s behaviour by words, gestures and body language.  Merely speaking out against unacceptable behaviour can help: it can cause people to reconsider their behaviour.  Conversely, it is possible to argue that failure to speak out is a way of condoning the behaviour.  At the very least, speaking out has the effect of communicating its unacceptability (which may have been unintentional).

·      With improved communications, people can exert global influence – for example by blogs and through social networks.  Group identities can be forged and strengthened by using the Internet – as countless organisations solicit people to join them, to contribute money etc. 

As an example of peer-group influence across an entire society, moral pressure in Victorian England was exerted to such an extent that John Stuart Mill described its use as a threat to liberty.[2]  The impact of moral pressure can also be counter-productive, driving those who do not conform to the edges of society and making their behaviour less acceptable to other people.   

© PatternsofPower.org, 2014