Question

Identify one example of conformity bias in “The Wretched and the Beautiful.”

Answer 1

Answer:

In this short story by ​E. Lily Yu, the relationship between the collective narrator and the refugees is mediated by authority figures such as the media, the police, politicians, and even the beautiful aliens that claim that the refugees are criminals. Only one voice of dissent arises, when a woman refuses to consider the small ones as criminals, but the conformity bias makes the collective shut her down and agree with the authorities, besides the possibility of being helping in a genocide of the refugees.

Explanation:

Conformity bias refers to the power of people´s urge to fit in, as we usually prefer the harmony of a homogenous group consensus, even if it means doing something immoral or somehow reprehensible because everyone is doing it.