Chapter 1. Chapter

Article

From the Pages of Scientific American

Following the Crowd

From the pages of Scientific American. Following the Crowd. Changing your mind to fit in may not be a conscious choice. Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder—it is also in the eyes of the beholder’s friends. A study published in April in Psychological Science found that men judge a woman as more attractive when they believe their peers find that woman attractive—supporting a budding theory that groupthink is not as simple as once thought. Researchers at Harvard University asked 14 college-age men to rate the attractiveness of 180 female faces on a scale of 1 to 10. Thirty minutes later the psychologists asked the men to rate the faces again, but this time the faces were paired with a random rating that the scientists told the men were averages of their peers’ scores. The men were strongly influenced by their peers’ supposed judgments—they rated the women with higher scores as more attractive than they did the first time. Functional MRI scans showed that the men were not simply lying to fit in. Activity in their brain’s pleasure centers indicated that their opinions of the women’s beauty really did change. The results fit in with a new theory of conformity, says the study’s lead author Jamil Zaki. When people conform to group expectations, Zaki says, they are not concealing their own preferences; they actually have aligned their minds. In addition, the likelihood of someone conforming depends on his or her place within the group, according to a study in the December 2010 issue of the British Journal of Sociology. Members who are central are more likely to dissent because their identities are more secure. Those at the edges, who feel only partially involved or are new to the group, may have more malleable opinions. The author is Carrie Arnold. Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2011 Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.

Click the image to enlarge. Click "Next" to continue.

1.1 Quiz

Question

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
Correct.
Incorrect.

Question

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
Correct.
Incorrect.

Question

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
Correct.
Incorrect.

Question

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
Correct.
Incorrect.

Question

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
Correct.
Incorrect.