Question

Informed by social psychology theory and research, please explain why, health reasons aside, women and men conform to the pressure of fashion dictates

Answer 1

Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms or politics and so one is fashion. Societal, organizational, institutional and social norms often establish gender differences and researchers have reported differences in the way men and women conform to social influence. Women are more persuadable and more conforming than men in group pressure situations that involve surveillance. This gender difference may be due to different gender roles in society.Women are generally taught to be more agreeable whereas men are taught to be more independent.

Several researches and theories found that men and women conformed more when there were participants of both gender involved versus participants of the same gender. Subjects in the groups with both genders were more apprehensive when there was a discrepancy amongst group members, and thus the subjects reported that they doubted their own judgments. It generally arrives due to methodological bias. It is argued that because stereotypes used in studies are generally male ones (sports, cars..) more than female ones (cooking, fashion..), women are feeling uncertain and conformed more, which was confirmed by their results.