Social Influences on Behavior

Humans are social creatures; they desire interaction with other humans. There are many reasons that people desire social interaction. Some people like to interact with other people to find companions, to share ideas, to gain perspective, and to hear another point of view, among other things. Barbara Streisand sang it best in "People"; "People, People who need people are the luckiest people in the world."

Humans are chameleons in that they try their best to fit in with their surroundings. No one wants to be an outsider, so people tend to adapt, or change their behavior, to suit whatever situation they may be in. It is not always bad to try and be a part of the crowd but this makes it difficult for other's to know the real person behind the act. Human behaviors tend to change to fit the social situation.

Men who hang out with their male buddies tend to behave differently from the way they would in any other situation. The man who would normally be polite and respectful when away from other guys may turn into a beast on the weekend when out with his friends. He might go from opening doors for women to gawking and whistling at them when in the company of other testosterone fuelled males. Men hanging out with other men also tend to try to out do one another in every way possible. If they are discussing cars the conversation might turn into who has bigger tires or who gets better gas mileage. If they are having a boy's night out at a bar, it becomes a contest to see who can drink more alcohol or meet more women. They may become loud and reckless in this situation when they would never behave that way if their wives were with them but when the wives are away, the boys will play.

I believe that men behave this way with one another because they reward one another. They cheer each other on when one may go up to a woman and ask for a number. They cheer each other on when they are in a competition to see who can finish a beer first. Men tend to conform to one another's standards of acceptable male behavior when among each other. "The presence of other people in a group can exert a substantial influence on the behavior of individual group members" (Kowalski & Westen 2006, p. 685). In a hypothetical example, Tony may turn his nose up at strip clubs when in the company of his spouse or other people who he believes may not approve of those places. However, Tony may become the biggest tipper when he goes to a strip club with his buddies that go to the strip club every weekend. So, the place that Tony truly thinks is unappealing, may become his "favorite place" when he discusses it with his friends that go all the time. This would be an attempt to conform to his peers. According to Kowalski and Westen (2006), "The pressure to conform can be immense, even if subtle. Wearing a thin tie when wide is in vogue makes many men uncomfortable, as does wearing the wrong brand of tennis shoes for many teenagers" (p. 681). In this situation Tony would be rewarded for being "one of the guys." This prevented him from being ostracized and from being teased from his best friends for being "prude" or "whipped."

In the spirit of Halloween, people find it fun and interesting to get together and go on a ghost hunt or a ghost tour. The people who attend these ghost hunts would be good examples of how a person's behavior changes in a social situation. When the group makes it to a supposedly haunted facility they listen to their tour guide tell the story behind the haunting. Everything an individual hears along with the power of suggestion can cause the individual to "experience" supernatural events. An individual on a ghost hunt may suddenly feel a cold spot or see a shadow that might not really be present. When this individual starts telling the other members of the group what they are experiencing, the other members might also begin to feel and see things. The other members of the group might think that they actually hear or see something but in order not to be left out, the person who is not experiencing anything might go along with what the group is saying only to believe later on that they had a genuine ghost experience.

Many of these people that join these ghost hunts believe that they are going to have a paranormal experience, mostly because of all the "experiences" that the tour guide tells them his last group had. Even if they do not run into a real ghost, they may go home saying, and truly believing, they did. "The influence of implicit and explicit expectations of this sort provides the basis for self-fulfilling prophecies, in which false impressions of a situation evoke behavior that, in turn, makes these impressions become true" (Kowalski & Westen, 2006; Merton, 1957 p. 678).

It is interesting to see a group of people standing in a cemetery waiting for something to happen, only to have a single person start pointing at a dark corner and begin asking "do you see that?" in a persuasive tone of voice, to cause the rest of the group to start pointing and claiming to see the ghost in the corner as well. All it takes is one person to get the ball rolling for the rest of the group. In a normal environment a person would not typically walk around with his or her hands out trying to feel a cold spot or walk around in a constant state of apprehension, which is the case for people on a ghost hunt.

In these two examples, there is no need for therapeutic intervention. These types of experiences are not consistent in either example and do not inhibit normal behavior outside of the unique situations. In the first example, it is explained that the men are typically respectful and polite when the situation demands it, and they are a bit less reserved when around other men. This is normal behavior for both men. The situation would call for therapeutic intervention if the man in this case was behaving the way he would in a bar, when he was at work. In the second situation, as explained earlier, the people on the ghost hunt do not continue the behaviors outside of the tour. There would be a need for intervention if the people on the ghost hunt continued on with their daily lives acting as if they see ghosts.

These two examples prove that people can and will change their behaviors to suit the situation. There are many reasons that people conform to the overall attitudes of the company they keep, just like there are many reasons that people seek out the companionship of other people. Whether for a night on the town or for a scary experience on Halloween, humans enjoy the company of one another. People really do need other people.

References:

Kowalski, R., & Westen, D., (2006). Psychology, 4^th Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Merton, R.K., (1957). Social Theory and Social Structure. Glencoe, IL; Free Press.