Fitting In: How Agreeableness Relates to Conformity

Humans are social animals, that much is true. If you’ve found yourself changing to fit in with the crowd, you’re not the only one.

But are some people more likely to conform than others? The simple answer is, “Yes!” Those scoring high on agreeableness tend to be particularly swayed by group pressure and the dangling possibility of ‘fitting in’.

Research demonstrates a close link between agreeableness and conformity. Some argue that the two factors share a close bond, while others suggest that you can’t have one without the other.

Conformity Defined

Ever heard of the term ‘peer pressure’? That’s the crux of conformity. It’s when an individual changes a belief or behavior to align with a social group. This alteration occurs due to perceived or real group pressure.

Pressure can take many forms, including criticism, persuasion, bullying, and teasing. But what fuels conformity? Typically, conforming is driven by a desire to be liked by others, fit in, or abide by a social norm. These different driving forces give rise to various types of conformity:

Conformity Trait	Description	Example
Compliance	An individual changes their beliefs/behavior because another person requests them to. The hope of reward or avoidance of punishment fuels this change.	Driving your car in a specific way to avoid criticism from your father.
Ingratiation	Performance of a behavior or belief change to be accepted or liked by a peer group.	For example, agreeing to do a charity skydive with your friends even though you’re afraid of heights because you fear they’ll dislike you if you don’t participate.
Identification	Adapting behavior or belief in response to another person’s influence in order to be liked by them. This is a public change, not necessarily a private one.	This could involve wearing a particular style of clothing to be considered ‘cool’ by a friendship group.
Internalization	A permanent change in belief or behavior as the group norm aligns with the individual’s internal values. This becomes a public and private alteration, making it the most powerful conformity type.	An example of this is to stop eating meat after agreeing with your vegetarian friends’ views on cruelty to animals.

How Does Agreeableness Relate to Conformity?

The relationship between agreeableness and conformity is widely recognized and accepted in scientific research. And it’s not difficult to see why. In extreme cases, the altruistic and cooperative tendencies of a highly agreeable person and their avoidance of conflict are characteristics shared with people pleasers.

Part and parcel of being a people pleaser is agreeing with others and not adhering to your own personal boundaries, which are classic cases of conformity.

So, if it’s not the relationship between the two that’s disputed, what is? The point of controversy is, in fact, the degree of synonymousness. While agreeableness is directly related to conformity when combined with conscientiousness and emotional stability, others take an even stronger view.

For example, researchers Costa, McCrae, and Dye argue that conformity is an intrinsic facet of agreeableness, not just a characteristic that coincides. This view is reinforced by Grant and Berg’s research showing that high agreeable scores are associated with prosocial behavior.

And this phenomenon isn’t specific to humans. McGrogan, Hutchison, and King explored agreeableness and conformity in 100 companion horses. They found that those horses showing high levels of agreeableness were more likely to be obedient, kind, social, and non-aggressive.

Bottom Line

Typically, agreeable people are characteristically well-liked, selfless individuals who put others before themselves and avoid conflict at all costs.

Although this personality trait has many apparent benefits, the tendency to conform can been seen as an issue: Those scoring very high on agreeableness, often called people pleasers, may be more prone to persuasion from peers and social pressures, thus succumbing to behavior and belief changes that don’t align with their intrinsic values.

Whether agreeableness and conformity are one and the same or two traits closely linked is yet to be identified, but what researchers are sure about is wherever agreeableness goes, conformity is sure to follow.