Peer pressure

Peer pressure is influence from people in one’s peer group that encourages changes in attitudes, choices, or behavior to fit group expectations.

Normative social influence: Influence that leads people to conform to gain acceptance or avoid disapproval. Peer pressure often works by making belonging seem to depend on matching group expectations.
Peer group: A group of people with shared status, age, interests, or social setting. Peer pressure arises within relationships among people regarded as social equals.
Peer-led intervention: A program in which peers deliver education or support to people in their own social group. The same credibility that makes pressure influential can help peers encourage safer choices.
Peer influence: The broad effect peers have on one another’s beliefs, choices, or behavior. Peer influence includes supportive learning and imitation, not only pressure to conform.
Informational social influence: Influence that leads people to use others’ behavior as evidence about what is correct. Peers can shape choices by seeming better informed, even without demanding conformity.
Social norms: Shared expectations about how members of a group should behave. These expectations supply the standards that peer pressure asks people to follow.
Peer education: Learning in which members of a group share knowledge and skills with one another. Peer education turns group influence toward information-sharing rather than coercion.
Coercion: The use of threats or force to compel someone to act against their will. Peer pressure may be indirect or subtle, unlike coercion’s explicit constraint or threat.
Conformity: A change in behavior or judgment toward a group norm. Peer pressure is one social route through which conformity occurs.
Social identity theory: A theory explaining how group memberships contribute to self-concept and intergroup behavior. Identification with a peer group can make its expectations feel personally significant.

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