The Strengths and Weaknesses of Conformity Throughout human history, conformity has acted as a key pillar that is crucial for societies to be successful. Today conformity as a whole is still advantageous for individuals and their communities because it incentivizes cooperation and organization, which is paramount for a society to be successful. The unity, organization, and cooperation created by conformity are key factors in the success of human society, and the boys attempted society in the book Lord of The Flies by William Golding.
In Lord of the Flies, conformity is required for the boys to create some sense of rules and organization in their society to improve their life on the island. During an argument about rules on the mountain, the boys discuss the importance of structure on the island. Piggy says, “‘We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything’” (Golding 42). Golding compares the English to savages. In this comparison, he suggests that rules are the difference between the organized structured English society and the anarchy of savages. Because this is the difference, the boys must conform to a set of rules to create any
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In a study done about conformity, many people followed a group's answer despite it being wrong. “In getting along with other people, most decent people know, as Hodges and Geyer put it, the ‘importance of cooperation, tact and social solidarity in situations that are tense or difficult’” (Berreby 1). This makes it clear that many people value cooperation more than they value correctness. The experiment suggests conformity is generally considered more important during decision-making in society. It highlights the fact that by nature humans value cooperation and trust in tense situations, showing conformities innate importance to