hiefly because of the confidence expressed by the majority. What that study indicated was that the need for acceptance in the social context was so strong that the nanve subjects were willing to abdicate their own perceptions. They did not want to be perceived as mentally incompetent or uncooperative. The implications reach well beyond a controlled clinical setting. For example, researchers have found that adolescents' need for acceptance in their peer groups may lead to asocial behavior, such as drugs experimentation or gang behavior, based on peer pressure (Needle, et al., 1986; Jenkins, 1998).
Conformity occurs based mainly on the need for social acceptance or affiliation or the desire not to disrupt the immediate social environment. Gang members have been found to have an emotional or psychological attachment to the gang, which is for them something greater than themselves as individuals. They may also organizing around an ideal or a charismatic leader. In that connection, Moor
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