Annotated Bibliography

Inquiry: Why do people follow the crowd and social trends? What makes people not want to
follow the crowd?

Proposed thesis: People follow the crowd and social trends because human ancestors started to
form groups long ago, which has stuck with people ever since, and today, following the crowd
makes people feel included and lifts the burden of making hard decisions by themselves.

Fiske, Susan T., et al. Annual Review of Psychology. Annual Reviews, 2014, https://www-
annualreviews-org.pallas2.tcl.sc.edu/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115151

There has been a lack of focus on why people deviate and dissent from groups of people. Most of
the information and topic in this subject are aimed at why people do conform in groups. I found
this book through the library database research and knew this would be good material for my
topic. To start, deviance and dissent from groups in normal in many cases, some people are not
keen to the group setting. The two reasons why people choose to conform in groups: First,
individuals turn to other people “as a guide to reality and as a guide to the appropriate way to
behave (that is, they see others as a source of informational influence).” Second, so that
individuals can fit in, stay away from social isolations, and be accepted or have approval by
others. Since there is significantly less research on why people choose to deviate from groups,
the book gives five reasons why people might not seek the group setting. Those reasons are
disengagement or disrespect for the group, loyalty and concern for the group, moral rebellion,
desire for individuality or uniqueness, and tangible rewards derived from groups. Those five
reasons are then gone on to be explained in the book.

Frey, Alyssa Marie, and Michael. “SiOWfa16: Science in Our World: Certainty and
Controversy.” SiOWfa16 Science in Our World Certainty and Controversy, 12 Oct. 2016,
www.sites.psu.edu/siowfa16/2016/10/12/why-do-we-conform/.

This article is from a Penn State blog for the certainty and controversy course. It recognizes the
action of social conformity between people especially at a younger age like high school and
college years. Through a famous study conducted on groups, it was found that many people feel
uncomfortable or out of place when their answer or ideas stray from the group at large. This is
also known as social pressure. A single person with a conflicting idea to a group might go along
with the group to avoid feeling out of place, even when they know their answer/idea is better or
right. Conformity like this can be seen on a daily basis. The author then gives her own opinion
by saying “Being unique is important and one should not conform just to feel that he or she is
good enough.”

“Going along with the Crowd: Why Do We Do It?” SPSP, 3 Aug. 2015, www.spsp.org/news-
center/blog/going-along-with-the-crowd.

This article also mentions how people will conform with a group and keep their own opinion that
is important to themselves to avoid any sort of conflict. Studying the brain is one of the methods
that this article uses to answer the article question. Modern medical technology helps scientists
view real life results in the brain as it is happening through special tools and monitoring
equipment. One of the main reasons for people to conform is to “maintain harmony among social
group members”. Studying the brain helps distinguish between the front that people put on and
what they actually think or believe. It has been found that often times, behavior is changed in
response to opinions within a group that differ from the individual’s own opinion. A positive
value is also placed on social relationships, which can give pleasures like winning approval from
others or the feeling of fitting in. Through social conformity, neural activity in the brain
associated with positive and reward valuation regions has been implicated in changing one’s
preferences to be in line with the opinions of others. I have determined the credibility of the
source is trustworthy, through the organization through which it was published (.org).

Henderson, Rob. “The Science Behind Why People Follow the Crowd.” Psychology Today,
Sussex Publishers, 24 May 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-
service/201705/the-science-behind-why-people-follow-the-crowd.

Group polarization is when likeminded people have similar viewpoints and those viewpoints are
reinforced by others. This makes the opinions of people in the group stronger. In social scenes,
the actions of others have a large influence on what other individuals do, for example what speed
to drive on the highway, whether to dance at party, or how much to drink at a bar. With other
people present, decisions for many things become a lot easier just by following the choice of
another group or individual. For many people, popularity is a good thing, and following the
crowd makes it easier to “function in a complicated environment.” Humans are also naturally
social and were able to survive for so long because of our ability to come together. “Early
humans who formed groups were more likely to survive.” This ability was understood by more
people over time causing more people to conform into groups. If banding together with more
people meant a better chance at surviving, it is very understandable why people started to group
up. Throughout time, this adaptation stuck with people all the way to modern day, where there
are groups for almost anything (in a social perspective). Rob Henderson was the author of this
article and is credible because of his education history (Ph. D. at University of Cambridge) and
his publication to a major psychology information website.

Martin, Steve. “The Science Behind Why Some People Don't Follow the Crowd.” INFLUENCE
AT WORK, 7 July 2017, www.influenceatwork.com/inside-influence-report/the-science-
behind-why-some-people-dont-follow-the-crowd/.

Now, on the other side of this picture, what drives some people to break away from the crowd to
have and stand by their opinion? On Influence At Work, I found a study done by social
psychologist Jonah Berger at the University of Pennsylvania where participants made decisions
about various products knowing the answers of previous, older, participants. For identity-neutral
products such as paper towels or laundry detergent, participants were more likely to follow the
decisions of previous test takers. For identity-relevant products such as clothes and music, the
participants were less likely to choose the same music and clothes than the older, previous, test
takers. Some of the results were concluded based on how people categorize themselves
(businesspeople, literary people, etc.). Now, this test was more based on consumer ideas and
decisions but shows that not everyone will follow the crowd and their decisions just because
other people chose them.
“Relevant Societal Trends.” Key Trends That Will Shape Army Installations of Tomorrow, by
Beth E. Lachman et al., RAND Corporation, 2013, pp. 207–244. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt5hhv93.14.

I have learned that this chapter talks about many variables that could shape and influence why
people follow the trends they do, especially younger people who are more easily influenced. I
picked this reference to use because many of the other chapters and articles I found had key
words I was looking for but failed to meet the criteria of my topic. With many different variables
all contributing to why people follow trends, the exigence is which of these variables on an
average scale have the most overall influence on what drives people to follow those trends. The
claim of this chapter is that relevant social trends have played a big role is how people live their
lives today, where modern media and technology have a huge influence. “In 1950, barely 10
percent of homes had television, whereas by 1960, more than 90 percent did. The amount of time
spent watching television in homes that had TV’s also grew by 50 percent between 1950 and
1995”. Steering away from the technology side of things, the chapter in the book also talks about
physical exercise and nutrition in the younger generations, ranging from ages 7-30 today. The
norm of having good health through balanced nutrition and physical exercise has declined since
around the 1960’s. I believe that there has been a tremendous decline in the discipline for people
in today’s world, otherwise obesity and addiction to media and social trends would not be at such
high rates.

“Why Do People Follow the Crowd?” ABC News, ABC News Network, 12 Jan. 2006,
www.abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Health/story?id=1495038.

As being social creatures, humans like to interact with others, which results in people following
other people based on similar ideas and beliefs. Sometimes we follow other people even when
it’s not entirely what we want to do, but because other people are doing it. A similar study of Dr.
Gregory Berns, who set out to try and answer the question of why people conform like they do,
was conducted. Groups of volunteers took series of different tests to determine whether the
participants would agree with or follow the group when answers were read aloud. The test
worked just as predicted as some of the participants who had different answers still went along
with the group decision anyway. This shows that people will sacrifice their own individual
opinion just to fit in and be a part of the group, despite the potential that their answer or opinion
may be correct. Many people seem to find comfort in groups of people or following someone to
make decisions for them rather than stand alone.

Yoon, Anum. “Why Are We So Obsessed With Celebrity Culture?” The Odyssey Online, The
Odyssey Online, 18 Dec. 2017, www.theodysseyonline.com/so-obsessed-with-celebrity-
culture.

I am aware of the risk that comes from a completely opinionated source, but after reading
through the article I chose, I believe that the author did a good job at approaching this situation
with rationality and a sense of reason. The author also seems to be “up-to-date” in terms of
modern context. Yes, this article is based upon bias, but in a way of someone who felt like they
had the knowledge to answer questions about this topic. Therefore, the bias is still ethical. I
found an article on Odyssey, which is a popular online source for all kinds of news and aimed
more to younger adults. I chose Odyssey as oppose to a scientific article because I wanted
someone’s personal opinion in my research. The article “Why Are We So Obsessed With
Celebrity Culture?” is the opinion of the author, Anum Yoon, which I thought would make a
good balance in sources since my last discussion was more fact based. I was able to understand
and relate to the situations the author describes regarding celebrities and how they impact the
lives of many people. I believe the history of people understanding other people makes this
source credible, there have been “celebrities” since the beginning of time and many people
observe and learn about the celebrities and the impact they create among other people, therefore,
being able to speak about them with rational ideas and statements. Now, why are people
obsessed with celebrities? To start, they are fairly normal people. They have a job, friends, and
maybe family. They aren’t too different other than the fact that they have more money than
people dream of having, they can buy whatever they want, and everyone seems to like them.
Seeing these people creates many thoughts and emotions among common folk. They’re like our
heroes, they have been around for a time, they make us feel good, and they give us envy. In
many cases, we try to feel like them or compare ourselves to them because it makes us feel better
and temporarily gives us a sense of security. Now, some people might argue that not everyone
would like to be a celebrity or famous or rich, which is absolutely true. Not everyone wants to
lead that kind of lifestyle, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t look up to certain celebrities or
want to be successful like them. To close this paragraph, there are people who completely try to
mimic the lifestyle and ways of certain celebrities which ends up clouding their vision of what
they are going to do in life and that is one of the biggest problems I see here.