The term "conformism" comes from the Latin "conformis" - "similar, similar", and means a type of behavior in which a person changes his beliefs and moral attitudes depending on the pressure of a social group, real or imaginary.
There are two types of conformism: internal and external.
Internal conformity is characterized by a sincere rejection of one's own beliefs and replacing them with the views accepted in the group. External conformism is a declared agreement with the opinion of the majority with an internal conviction of one's own righteousness. This behavior is sometimes figuratively called "fig in your pocket."
As proved by the studies of American sociologists Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram, the level of conformism in different social groups is approximately the same. Particularly impressive is Milgram's experiment, in which subjects demonstrated a willingness to inflict severe pain on another subject if the experiment leader insisted on it. The electric shock torture was a plausible imitation, but the test subjects believed they were indeed fulfilling the duties of an executioner.
Research was carried out at Yale University, then in Bridgetown, Connecticut. The experiment was repeated by European scientists. The results were the same: more than half of the subjects were willing to hurt another participant, bordering on life-threatening pain.
The participants in the experiment were ordinary people, of different social status and income. They felt the strongest discomfort, causing suffering to the person, but they obeyed the instructions of the leader. At the slightest opportunity, the subjects sabotaged their unpleasant duties, but directly refused to perform them, at different stages of the experiment, only 35% of the participants.
Milgrem wanted to find out why the people of Germany conscientiously took part in the work of the giant death machine in the concentration camps. He came to the conclusion that the reason for this is a deeply rooted belief in society that it is necessary to obey authorities and superiors.
However, rejection of one's own opinion is just as bad as aggressive nihilism, i.e. denial of moral and ethical standards. Conformity (a person's ability to learn the rules of society's behavior) is necessary for the normal development of society.