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Andrew Lin

10/4/11

SOC370

Kim Lopez

Altruism and Conformity: My Personal Theories

Two prominent characteristics I often notice and take interest in that people display are that of

altruism and conformity. In the area I come from, which is a predominantly white, wealthy suburban

town, I notice varying levels altruism and conformity coming from people (including myself). This

variety largely depends who someone is or has become as a person, and what situation they are in.

Empathy, which I believe is necessary for altruistic behavior, is not a quality that can be taught.

It either can be reinforced or occluded, but I believe that every person, save for sociopaths, is born with

the ability to empathize. I believe this because I have noticed that most people are capable of altruism

if they invite guests over, they tend to them and provide free food and treat them with kindness. If

their friend is having a breakdown, they do their best to comfort them.

Yet the empathy that the people in my town have seems limited only to those in their immediate

presence. When it came to altruistic behavior that effected people outside of my town, it seemed like

most people were unwilling or incapable of it. There is a sort of double standard of altruism that puts

certain people, namely those that one knew personally and interacted with on a daily basis, above

others. In order to understand what encourages people to continue being altruistic, I will examine

factors that I believe to discourage altruism.

My upbringing, including the culture and class that I (and nearly everyone from my hometown)

was born into, greatly influences how I understand altruistic behavior. My personal culture has a heavy

emphasis on family and community. My family would often have meals that followed the Chinese

tradition, in which everybody sat around large dishes and shared food, rather than the American

tradition of each individual having their own plate with the food already on it. Through my

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observations of the culture that permeates my hometown, which is largely influenced by the high social

status and economic class of the people whom live there, I have come to understand altruism as an

innate human quality that can grow or be repressed.

The suburban landscape of my hometown, which consists of large houses surrounded by large

yards and few public gathering areas, as well as the materialistic consumption and menial idol-worship

that takes place via strip malls and televisions, discourage deep thought and human interaction. This

kind of pursuit of material rewards and emphasis on privacy and a distrust of others is prominent in

higher class areas. Because of how the community (or lack thereof) is set up, both physically and

socially, nobody talks to strangers or shares experiences. Rather, they lock their doors and see anyone

else as a potentially dangerous person with the worst intentions. I have seen families gone for weeks

on vacation who leave lights on in and around their houses to try and create the illusion that people are

home, and burglars will be caught. Ironically, the people who do this live in one of the safest, most

secure neighborhoods in the world. Rather than gathering in public places to share a meal, a

conversation, or wonder with others at the beauty of the natural world, people stay inside in controlled

environments, where they watch shows about melodramatic people to get their fill of human

interaction. Advertisements sell cars and smart phones and touch pads as though they will bring about

fulfillment, love, and togetherness. But instead, these things sit on shelves and bring about wasted time

and isolation. When people in my town are not playing on their touch pads in their over-sized houses,

they are likely going to work in some cubicle or office in the middle of a gray city. This over-work and

over-consumption leads to stagnated thought and dehumanization, meaning people become less capable

of emphasizing with others.

Yet it is this isolation and materialism that people strive for in my hometown. I believe that the

educational and familial institutions' emphasis on systems of punishment and rewards (such as time

out, grades, etc.) informs people's thoughts ideas about work and motivation. Rather than acting

altruistically, or helping others for the sake of helping them, people begin to require rewards for their

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actions. Thus, there are people in my hometown who own a mansion that sits upon thirty acres of land,

who will use what little altruism they have left to lavish guests with luxurious food and furnishing, but

will not spare any of that land to give the homeless a place to live. People will go through school and

college, but primarily to receive a high salary. They have, in my opinion, become less capable of

giving without expecting any reward in return. Thus, an environment that would help foster empathy

and a social upbringing that emphasizes doing things for the sake of doing them, rather than for

rewards, would help people maintain the altruism that they are born with.

Based on my observations, the processes that discourage Altruism are the similar to those that

encourage conformity. Namely, the socializing forces of the media and education, mixed with the lack

of a truly close-knit community, lead to conformity.

Institutions like the media are powerful factors in conformity. From the moment people are

born, for example, we are told that boys must act one way, and girls another. Even if we openly

dismiss social norms and mores as too conformist, they work their way into our subconscious. Thus,

someone may dismiss male gender roles as seen in Axe body spray commercials as brutish and idiotic.

Yet, I have found myself questioning, on an almost unconscious level, whether I should change how I

dress and act in order to be more accepted and successful in life. As children, we are constantly

bombarded by messages that we must be a certain way lest we be cast aside by society. Whether this

be from mass media and large institutions, or from individual interactions, the pressure to conform to

social mores is overwhelming.

Since the town which I come from has no real communal aspects, such as small, close homes

and nearby public gathering areas, the desire to have social interactions becomes greater. I believe that

people want to be validated and accepted by others, and in order to do this, many conform. Thus, at my

high school, there were troves of people whom dressed the same, talked the same, and acted the same.

Sometimes certain alpha students would pick up a trend and make it cool, resulting in conformity by

the rest of the student body. One year, for example, playing the game Pokemon became a popular

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trend. What was once the lonely activity of nerdy, social rejects was now the highlight of the day for

all the coolest people. People also conformed in the masses to the idea of school spirit, likely out of

their desire to be part of a communal, unifying thing.

The desire to be outstanding and better than others resulted in widespread conformity as well.

The competitive drive found in many people reinforced the desire to he accepted, even heralded, by

others. As a child, I remember my parents telling me that I had to be better than my friends more

polite, more intelligent, etc. This brought about in me a desire to be better. Yet I feel that I did not

actively try to conform to any normative image in society. At times, I may have tried to actively reject

conformity, thereby conforming to some other idea about how to look and act. But it was, ironically,

my upbringing in a competitive and conformist society that led me to develop my theories about what

forces create conformity, and resist those forces.

Some aspects of conformity are less voluntary, and may even result in resistance to conformity.

For example, in elementary school, I was required to wear a uniform, and if I violated the uniform

policy in any way, I would be punished. This punishment led me to question the the uniform policy,

and helped me realize that it was merely a form of conformity that, in my opinion, had no real purpose.

Yet others did not question authority as much, as the culture in my town emphasized respect to those in

power, likely because so many whom lived there we in positions of privilege and power themselves.

Some of my family, particularly my cousin Robby, would often talk to me about his

philosophical ideas on life. This presented me with a unique perspective on how the world works,

which allowed me to escape the conformity of the town I was raised in. My cousin's thoughts

encouraged me to think more critically about what people do. Thus, when people conformed to school

spirit or drinking at parties in high school, I resisted those aspects of conformity.

Yet, even when people rejected conformity or authority, they conformed to another social norm.

Disrespecting authority had no purpose other than standing out and becoming more popular. Rejecting

the social mores of the predominantly white, upper class student body resulted in students whom

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conformed to a more goth style. When I rejected the social norm of drinking and partying, I

conformed to my family's rules against any sort of excessive drinking.

Thus, people conform because they have been bombarded by various social forces with ideas

about social norms. In order to be accepted, people conform to these norms. These norms may be

implanted in their heads or simply forced upon them via authoritarian rules. It was this overwhelming

message to conform, combined with an outside perspective, which helped me to develop my ideas

about conformity and gave me the desire to critique conformity.