You know what they say: "Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder-- it's also in the eye of the beholder's friends."

More often than not, you'll find that if you watch people in a particular way, it seems that crowd following in an almost automatic and unthinking fashion of response.

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A theory has come to light through the study of social psychology, that it actually is, in fact, a near automatic human response to conform to the ideas of the crowd you most associate with.

You'll find that if a friend raves about a TV show, you're more likely to watch and enjoy it, and if all your friends eat consistently at a certain restaurant, you'll soon feel the need to eat there too.

A study was conducted by Harvard University psychologists in early 2011; this study was conducted by Jamil Zaki, Jessica Schirmer, and Jason Mitchell, and is published in Psychological Science.

Jamil Zaki stated: "Conformity gets a bad rap. That is partially predicated on the idea that it is a form of lying: you're lying about yourself to try to fit in. Our data suggest that at a deep emotional level you really are changing your view."

Fourteen men, ranging in age from 18-24, were presented with the digitalized faces of 180 women and were asked to rate them on attractiveness, on a scale from 1-7. The participants were informed that hundreds of other men had rated them as well. When rating, the participant's number would flash in green at the bottom of the screen, immediately followed by a flash of their "peers" score in red-- which was actually a computer-generated overly-contradicting score compared to their own.

Previously having rated someone low, the "peer" score would flash disproportionately high in comparison (and vise versa). This influenced their taste, causing them to think more or less of an image on second thought.

After 30 minutes, these men were asked to rate them again, only with no flashes of peer ratings. While rating, their brains were scanned by an MRI machine.

Equally as surprising as unsurprising, their ratings were heavily influenced by the previous number chosen by the computer.

The MRI machines recorded information revealing a larger response in reward-related regions of the brain when re-assessing the women they suddenly found more aesthetically pleasing. When their opinions lowered, so did their brain response.

This suggests that the idea of "groupthink" is not as simple or trite as it may be made out to be.

The generalized easily-swung-non-opinionated person seems to typically be considered-- quite frankly-- a liar, who says they have the same opinion as one person one day, yet have the opposite opinion the next.

Heavily noticeable in changes in people's persoanlities depending on their crowd, this trend may be proven to be not as conscious as we assume.

Social learning teaches us from a young age to rely on other's actions as a tool for examining our own behavior. This is proven in the major difference in day-to-day belief and lifestyle depending on where you live, attend school, or work.

In Ayn Rand's novel, The Return of the Primitive, crowd following & peer pressure are heavily rotated topics.

"If a determined, disciplined gang of statists were to make an assault on the crumbling remnants of a mixed economy, boldly and explicitly proclaiming the collectivist tenets which the country had accepted by tacit default—what resistance would they encounter? The dispirited, demoralized, embittered majority would remain lethargically indifferent to any public event. And many would support the gang, at first, moved by a desperate, incoherent frustration, by a need to protest, not knowing fully against what, by a blind desire to strike out somehow at the suffocating hopelessness of the status quo."
― Ayn Rand, The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

Rand consistently insists that people who seem to lack an opinion of their own don't just appear that way, but just are that way. Often described as mere shells waiting to be filled, she claims a lack of personality isn't a choice, but a characteristic of their existence.

It's almost as if these people aren't just easily swayed, but simply have no convictions at all. This is a very real, very dangerous problem in today's society. This is especially true amongst the younger generation, who are being fed into by consistently empty and shallow media, curriculums, and society, which will ultimately produce consistently empty and shallow people.

Though this research should not be used as a reason to excuse poor choices of action when surrounded by peers, it should be considered that a lack of conviction is more harmful to self than a poorly selected friend group.

This battle of non-conformity suddenly shifts from a fight against peer-pressure to developing the certitude necessary to choose peers in the first place.

The devastation of truly not knowing any better; that is the threat greater than peer pressure.