peer pressure

Meaning: Peer pressure is influence from people of similar age, status or interests that pushes an individual toward the group's behaviors, attitudes or values. The peer group is an agent of socialization, especially in adolescence. Two mechanisms are named. Normative social influence is the wish to be accepted and avoid rejection. Informational social influence is the assumption that the group knows better, which matters most when a situation is ambiguous. The pressure can be explicit or implicit, and its effects can be harmful or beneficial.

On the MCAT: The classic setup is Asch's line-judgment study. Confederates unanimously give a wrong answer, and the participant often goes along. Expect to predict how conformity changes. It tends to fall when even one confederate dissents, and when answers are given privately instead of aloud. Peer pressure also appears in passages on adolescent risk behavior, deviance, reference groups and differential association.

Common confusion: Students mix peer pressure up with obedience. Obedience (Milgram) is following a direct order from an authority figure. Peer pressure comes from equals with no formal authority and often with no request at all. It is conformity, not compliance, because compliance is a response to an explicit request.