Peer Pressure and Its Effects on the Mind

By: Jackson K.

       Think of a time when you did not want to do something that everyone else was doing, like drugs for example. But for some reason, you do it. Sounds weird, right?  Doing something you were told to never do, and you even told yourself you would never do it. But for some reason you just did it because you saw other people doing it. That is called peer pressure. 

       Liz, a fifteen year-old girl, went to a party with her friends. As soon as the party began, Liz’s friends rushed to dance with boys and abandoned Liz. Before they left for good, they told her to dance with a boy, or to be alone with one at least. Although Liz knew her parents warned her to not be alone with a boy at that party, Liz still went to the secluded garden alone with a boy to feel included. She knew the conceivable consequences but still did it. She got raped in that garden by the boy. She hollered for help, but the music in the party was too loud for anyone to acknowledge her cries for help. Because of all of this loud noise, the police came because of a noise complaint. Overall for Liz, that party was an awful experience.

       The only reason that Liz went alone with the boy was because of peer pressure. Peer pressure affects your mind by cluttering your risk and reward receivers. This makes you less able to determine the risks of your actions. When you make your friends happy by doing what they asked for, your dopamine catapults further than usual. This makes you more prone to continue doing risky things when your friends ask. Also, when you are driving with two or more friends, you're three times more likely to take risks. These are risks you wouldn’t take when you are alone or with one other friend. “What we are doing is very quickly, and often unconsciously, calculating the rewards and costs of different actions,” says psychologist Laurence Steinberg, a leading expert on adolescent peer influence. “When we do this calculation and come to the conclusion that the potential rewards of a particular action outweigh the potential costs, we act in that way.”

       Physiological scientists say that peer pressure’s effects reflect a far more complex phenomenon. So there are many ways to deal with peer pressure that people have suggested, one being to talk it out with a parent/guardian, school counselor, therapist, family doctor, etc. Your friends can also help you with any peer pressure you are experiencing. They can help by making you feel better and then helping you overcome the pressure. The only way any of the aforementioned solutions could work is if they seek help. Luckily, the older you grow, the more resistance you have to peer pressure. Science states that when you are 18 you have enough resistance to say no easily.  

       Peer pressure has many effects on the minds of others. Peer pressure is affecting 90% of teenagers. Most are too young to do anything about it, so they just have to sit in silence, hoping it stops. But there is no clear way to stop peer pressure; many people suffer from its aftereffects. As you get older, you gain more resistance to peer pressure, so life goes on. But the decisions made while experiencing peer pressure are the factors that change lives. The best thing we can do is help, comfort, and protect ourselves and our friends from peer pressure.