Think about the role you play within your group of friends. Is it the same role you play in English class? How about when you are with your family? Do you act the same when you are at work or meeting a group of people for the first time? Most likely, you act and play a different role in each group. What does this mean about our personalities and our need to be accepted into diverse groups?
People always want to feel accepted and will go as far as changing their personalities to fit into these groups. As a whole, people are very insecure about who they are and adapt their personalities to where they feel they fit into a group. For example, if you are with a group of friends you have known for a long time, you may feel more comfortable to take on a leading position. In contrast, if you are meeting a group of people who met for the first time, you may turn into a follower.
In this article on social identity, they conducted an experiment where a group of boys were separated into two different groups based on which painting they liked better and where distributed money. They did not know who belonged to which group and were told to hand out the money to different people. The ending result showed that people were more likely to distribute money to other members in the same group even though they didn’t know who was in their group. We all have our own identities and this experiment showed that we tend to bond with people who are similar to us.
However, sometimes we are thrown into situations that our out of our control. For instance, we do not choose our own families or the people we work with. We still want to feel like we are a part of these groups and that is why we morph who we really are to fit in. Being a part of a group makes us feel safe and makes us feel like we belong; how much are we willing to change the person we really are to “fit” in. Shouldn’t we be accepted for who we are and not what people want us to be? How much of yourself are you willing to change to please others? Is it worth it?
http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/why-groups-and-prejudices-form-so.php
