It is astonishing that the simple presence of other people can influence someones behavior. In our society, if you go against the social norms you might be considered abnormal and being different is almost frowned upon; therefore, it makes sense that people would want to go with the flow rather than standing out and representing themselves as an individual especially in a psychological aspect. When in the presence of a group it is known that people will act in certain way: either having improved performance (social facilitation) or decreased performance (social impairment). The presence of others can increase arousal in our fight or flight system causing us to react to things in different ways depending on who may or may not be around.

In class we looked at the example where the young man, in a group setting, decided to go along with the group by saying the wrong answer rather than choosing to stand out even when he knew the answer was wrong. Also the more comedic example we looked at was with the people in the elevator where the same social influence occurred. Learning about social influence in psychology reminded me of the show “What Would You Do?” that almost tests ones ability to actually stand out and be different rather than going with the flow of society and staying quiet. Each episode of the show puts people in a situation where they might feel uncomfortable to test how they will react. Although the show does not specifically put the participant in a room with other people, they do test their reactions more efficiently in everyday life where they are surrounded by people in natural settings. Some of these particular situations include witnessing teens drink then prepare to get in the car and drive, hearing an insulting conversation where a mother ridicules her daughter for not looking a certain way, lost kids, and different bullying experiences. One that I found extremely intriguing is as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc_K9c24R5o

In this example there is an actor that has down syndrome and is working at a grocery store to bag groceries. He pretends to be working very slowly and having problems bagging the groceries; they have another actor causing trouble by making rude comments about the actor with down syndrome. The reactions of the people witnessing this situation are inspiring; almost all of the people stand up for the actor. In this example there aren’t many circumstances when someone did not stand up for the actor with down syndrome, but social influences can definitely play a role in whether or not the people chose to actually speak up. One woman said she did not want to cause anymore of a ruckus by involving herself, which made me wonder if she was afraid of being ridiculed herself or looked at differently by sticking up for the actor.

Everyday we face situations where group influence and the presence of other people influence the way we behave in certain situations. Sometimes standing out makes you seem different to others in society, but other times it may mean all the difference in someone else’s life if you do stand up and speak your mind even if you think you might be ridiculed.