Dare to Resist the Pressure

At some point in our lives, we have all conformed to our peers. Whether it was something as innocent as laughing when everyone was laughing (even though you didn't get the joke) or as gross as bullying someone because everyone else was.
 
At first, there is pain when one conforms to the group, yet for most, it is less painful than standing out. The truth is, even if you think you are a free thinker, chances are, you're not.
 
In 1951 psychologist Solomon Asch performed his famous conformity studies. In his first study, he sat eight college students in a room, but seven of them were paid actors.
 
The students were shown a set of four lines and asked to say which two of the four lines were the same length. All of the actors were told to lie by agreeing on the same obviously incorrect answer. Eventually, the experimental subjects, knowing the answer was wrong, would conform to the group and answer with the other seven. The pain of being wrong was less painful than the pain of being an outsider.
 
Would you conform? Probably. Asch's experiments showed that 75% of participants conformed at least once.
 
Often worshiping God with our minds means we can't conform to society, but where can we get the strength to fight against conformity? Tomorrow, we'll see how we can be transformed by the Spirit rather than conformed to the world. Worship with us as we see what it means to live a transformed life and have the power to stand up or standout when needed.
 
Ps. If you would like to see the experiment in action, you can watch a portion of the fascinating video from Vsauce below.