Information Cascades and the Outcomes of Peer Pressure
Every day, people’s decisions are often influenced by others especially when they are indecisive. Humans tend to be easily influenced in the decisions they make and behaviors based on the majority of a friend group or popularity within a network, and it isn’t necessarily the most beneficial for the individual. Because we are not one hundred percent confident in our decisions, we look for affirmation from others and also want to fit in with the crowd/ vibe as young adults. This can be seen among friend groups where peer pressure is often a large influence in making positive or negative decisions.
The article dives into the problem of young adolescents who can make rash decisions because they have to immediately make a decision under the pressure of their friends. These decisions are not necessarily made because they don’t know the result, but it is not thought about long-term. Scientific research shows that it is difficult for teens to control their impulsiveness when emotions are involved with their peers. The example given is, a boy is with a group of his friends playing video games. While choosing a game, one peer says that the game is too easy and they don’t want to play it, to which others agree. The boy enjoys the game but decides not to say anything because he doesn’t want to ruin the mood of the hangout. There was a negative outcome of this boy not being able to truly speak his opinion because the majority of the group didn’t like the game. Whether it is a positive or negative outcome, pressure is difficult to overcome.
This concept reflects the topic of information cascades which occurs when people make decisions by following the crowd and rejecting his/her own opinion. If we take the herding experiment steps into consideration, a decision has to be made initially, which is whether or not the boy would have said anything about wanting to play the game. Next, he makes this decision sequentially based on choices made by others previously. Initially, everyone was giving their opinions, but as his peers naturally agreed to not play the game he was conflicted. His decision was then guided by these actions and inferring something based on what previous people know. His peer said he didn’t want to play the game because it was too easy. They were already rejecting the idea of playing this game, so the boy inferred that it would not be good to say he wanted to play it. Thus, he reached his decision to stay silent. As more people are in the group, the pressure to conform increases, which is what happened to this boy’s situation. Going against his own thoughts & decisions, he was unable to make a decision without others influencing him. Therefore, in society peer pressure is an example of an information cascade where others’ opinions take precedence in making decisions.
https://headsup.scholastic.com/students/peer-pressure-its-influence-on-teens-and-decision-making/
https://www.secureteen.com/peer-pressure/peer-pressure-among-teens-and-decision-making/