Popular Delusions: How Social Conformity Molds Society and Polit ...

One theory is that social norms are stored in a specific part of the brain, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, where they are activated as a whole entity, like a script.¹⁰ This happens, for example, when children are taught right and wrong, eventually internalizing what they should do. Later, when the occasion arises, they will usually do the right thing automatically without debating the pros and cons of each decision. Most people driving a car brake for stop signs automatically, over and over again, without continual introspection about the alternatives. Later in the book, I show that other components of conformist decision making go on in our nonconscious minds but do not involve prior learning, as in these examples.

The nonconscious side of conformity raises important issues. If one were only concerned about the impact of conformity on the names people choose for their children or the width of men’s ties, it would not be a big concern. One cannot dismiss conformity, however, when it affects how people vote. The basis for a democratic process is the belief that citizens make rational choices among the issues, candidates, or political parties. If that is not what many voters are doing, what are the implications for democratic government? It is also a serious problem when nonconscious stereotypes spill over to prejudicial acts against individuals or lead to violence against minority groups in a population.

Theories About Conformity

Despite its pervasive impact on everyday life, social conformity has been studied only intermittently since Alexis de Tocqueville first recognized it almost 200 years ago. Academic research is subject to its own conformist fads and fashions, and academic interest in conformity has come and gone over the years. But research on conformity and social norms greatly increased in the last decade. The universality of social conformity among humans is cause for much speculation about how and why humans became conformists. An evolutionary, inherited genetic origin is one theory.