Introduction

This essay explains the question "To what extent does conformity influence culture, and to what extent does culture influence conformity.” The author answered these two questions based on his own experiences, the textbook, and materials from the Internet. The essay compares culture in China and America, and how people conform these different countries. The essay also talked about how conformity can influence culture and how it affects people’s behavior.

To What Extent Does Culture Influence Conformity

Chinese Culture Creates Conformity

In ancient China, the emperors had to set out rules to make people obey their orders. For example, ancient Chinese people are not allowed to speak the emperor’s name. They have to pay high taxes. People who do not conform or obey their rules are severely punished. “A whole family may be killed just because one member broke these rules.” In the last thousands of years. Chinese tend to conform.

Nowadays in China, education played an important role in conforming. Students are forced to follow rules, which may be the reason why older people also tend to follow.

For example, in Jim’s (the author) high school, students are told to follow a strict schedule to help them focus on their studies. Students are told to get up at 6:30, attend classes from 7 am to 5 pm with only a 40-minute lunch break in the middle, and in the evening study from 6-9 pm. We were told to wear only school uniforms. As time passed, everyone just follow this schedule every day, and all they care about is the exams. Everybody conformed and those who don't follow the rules are punished.

There is also the military training in university. Every Chinese university student must join in a two-week-long military training immediately after they came to the university. In those two weeks, military officers gave orders to us. Military training is a kind of formation training which includes stand at attention, stand at ease, footwork, salute. Everybody is told to walk at the same pace, or else we have to walk again. In the end, Everybody conformed to the orders of the officers.

American Culture Does Not Lead to Conformity

In American culture, however, fewer people conform. In the summer of 2017, Jim(the author) went to a camp in California to study math. He found that few Americans like to follow others strictly. In fact, there are not many rules. Students there choose what they want to learn. 8th grade students can choose a class for 10th grade. Jim was only 7th grade by then and chose a course designed for high school students.

The class is also different. Contrary to the Chinese way--only teacher talking and students required to sit still--Jim found that in the US, teachers interact with students a lot. Students can talk about their thoughts about the problems, and teachers only helped when necessary.

Even exams are different. In China, the tests are standardized. This means students are asked to conform to the standardized answer, which may not be the best, but are used by the teachers to grade the exams. Jim usually writes about his own thoughts about the problem. When the camp ended, Jim got 90 in the last quiz.

American teachers tend to accept those different voices, as long as they are reasonable, while Chinese teachers are always asking students to conform.

Collectivism Culture Make People Conform

Collectivism is the belief that the good of the group should be more important than the good of the few or the individual. On the other hand, individualism is the belief that each member of the group should be independent and self-restraint. It seems normal that “collectivists would conform more than individualists.”

Social pressure may be a reason why people in some collectivism country conform. Social pressure are “particularly pronounce in East Asia, where people are supposed to know their place, and in small towns, where everyone regularly interacts with everyone else.”

Professor Oh of Konkok University performed an experiment with half Indian(a collectivist culture) and half American(individualism culture). The results of this experiment showed that Indian participants were far more likely to conform than American participants.

Conformity in Other Countries

European cultures are similar to the US. They have their own beliefs. In ancient Greece, people valued knowledge very much. The Renaissance promoted religious reform in European countries and attacked the authority of churches. Science became much more respected. After several revolutions which happened in different countries, freedom of individuals became very important, even till now.

In most of North America and Europe, the rates percentages of obedience is lower than in Asian countries.

To What Extent Does Conformity Influence Culture

Conformity Can Make People Do Things They Do Not Like

In the Stanford Prison Experiment, the volunteers are asked to act as the prison guards and prisoners in a prison. As time passed, the prison guards confirmed and obeyed their orders. Soon the atmosphere became unbearable and the experiment had to be ended.

Soloman Asch found that obedience “was not a particular feature found in the minds of 20th-Century Germans but something more universal.” In Milgram’s experiment, people were instructed to deliver shocks that cause pain. Unlike the estimation, most of the participants would deliver high shocks.

During World War II, soldiers obeyed orders to kill people. As a result, many innocent people died. Conformity among soldiers leads to these deaths.

In the summer when Jim (the author) and his classmates went on a graduation trip to Mt. East (in Suzhou). It was really hot that day,about 35℃. It was really tiring to climb the mountain, which is about 500 meters, in such a day. However, none of his classmates objected to the original plan. They really wore themselves out that day.

Conformity Can Create a Culture Where People Do Not Express Their Own Ideas

In the Abilene Paradox, nobody in the man’s family wanted to go to Abilene on that hot summer day, but they ended up in Abilene.. Nobody talked about their own thoughts.

In Soloman Asch’s experiment, Asch thought initially “few of the subjects would comply with answers since the task is simple and obvious.” In the actual study, however, subjects gave incorrect answers to almost a third of the questions. “[The participants] did not want to stand out or appear different and foolish.”

When Jim (the author) was in 6th grade, his Math teacher Mrs. Liu gave out lots of assignments. These assignments are very easy and not useful in improving Jim’s math skills. However, as nobody in his class protested, Jim ended up doing all the homework for a whole semester, like his classmates. On one special occasion after the end of the semester, Jim discovered that most of his classmates found the homework easy, like him. When Jim and his classmates talked to Mrs. Liu about the homework, she was surprised. Mrs. Liu previously thought that the class did not understand the lesson well and needed to do much homework. Nobody suggested the idea because they do not want to stand out or embarrass themselves.

Conformity Stopped Students From Pursuing Their Interests

When Jim (the author) went to Boston in the summer of 2016, he talked with a few natives about their school life. He found that in Western countries, students tend to spend more time out. They do not have so much pressure in their studies.

Chinese teenagers spend an average of 10 hours a day cramming for exams. This is because the school and parents forced Chinese students to conform. However, American high school ends at about 2 pm. Students spend the rest of the day joining various clubs or doing outdoor activities they like.

Non-Conformity Leads to Diverse Lives

The normal lifestyle in China includes school, job, marriage, house, children. Most Chinese conform to this lifestyle.

However, in American, not everybody follows the same example. Some people chose marriage between the same sex, and some choose not to finish school. The result is that people in the US have more interesting lives than Chinese people.

Conformity May Be Good for Pandemic

When covid-19 broke out in China, the governments set out strict rules to control the virus. Most people followed the rules. Almost nobody go out in February and March of 2020. At that time Jim(the author) lived on the 29th floor. He saw that the number of cars on the street significantly decreased over these days. Everybody wore masks in the subway and buses for more than a year(even today). The virus was controlled from spreading too far in China.

By contrast, in American and some other European countries, since some people are persistent in not following others and desired freedom so much, the government could not set out strict regulations. A large number of people refused to wear masks or stay at home. The result is that they could not control the virus. Many people suffered from the pandemic.

Conclusion

Chinese culture creates conformity from its regulations. American culture, however, does not lead to conformity. Collectivism lead to more conformity than individualism.

In a culture of conformity, people may do things they do not like, not express their own ideas, not pursue their interests, and have boring lives. However, a culture of conformity is better at dealing with pandemic..