Bottom line to this study... teens conform
(at least in music choices) to their peers not to be popular, but to
avoid the emotional anxiety and pain of being a "contrarian."
According to the findings of a study recently published in Neuroimage,
when it comes to the music teens buy, a lot of those purchases are made
out of fear -- a fear well known to adolescents all over America:
terror of social rejection.
The fear of social rejection is so strong in adolescents because
their relationships are essential for passing on the lessons that will
enable them to join adult society. In order to do this properly and
efficiently, teenagers come equipped with the ability to learn fast and
furiously from their peers, especially those who wield more social
power -- who are older or more popular. Although this system developed
because it helps the teen transition to adulthood, it has proven an
excellent principle upon which to base economic decisions. The popular
kids dictate teen culture, and if they endorse it (Twilight, anyone?) it
will sell.
The researchers chose to study adolescents between the ages of 12 and
17, a cohort thought to be highly susceptible to social influence, and
known to buy at least one third of albums in the United States. Each
participant heard a short clip of a song downloaded from the
social-networking website Myspace. Following the clip they were asked to
make two ratings, one indicating how familiar they were with the clip
(which was always the hook or chorus of the chosen song) and one
indicating how much they liked the clip on a five point scale. The clip
was then played a second time, and they were again asked to rate how
much they liked the song. However, in two thirds of these second trials
the teens were shown a popularity rating that was estimated based on the
number of times the song was downloaded.
When no information about the popularity of a song was displayed,
teens changed their likability rating of the song 12 percent of the
time. Not surprisingly, after being shown the popularity of a song,
teens changed their ratings more frequently, on average 22 percent of
the time. This difference was highly significant, and it is worth noting
that among those who changed their likability ratings, 79 percent of
the time teens changed their ratings in the direction of the popularity
rating -- they followed the crowd.
These behavioral findings validate a great deal of previous research
on
conformity, and demonstrate that it is alive and well in the average
American adolescent.
But, did teens actually “follow the crowd” or, upon further
reflection and information from their peers, changed their intrinsic
preference for a particular piece of music? The researchers investigated
the question by looking at brain activity, and found it had nothing to
do with increased liking of the music. Further, the research indicated
that when teens became aware they held a unpopular likability rating for
a song, brain activity registered in an area associated with anxiety
and pain.
So, the researchers argue, conforming seems to be motivated not by
the positive utility of behaving like your peers, but instead out of
anxiety and pain at the prospect of being a “contrarian.”
Source: Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-teen-music-choices-fear-rules
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