Question

How do peer group pressures affect adolescents?

Answer 1

Social needs are at an all-time high for adolescents, so they are more likely to do as the group says, even if they hadn't said anything. An experiment was conducted on 15-year-old teens on a driving simulation game. The game was to get to the other point on the game map as fast as you possibly could. The faster you were, the more money you got. Researchers found that teens were twice as likely to take risks (running red and yellow lights, though it could end in an "accident" with no money from the simulation) when a second passenger was there, not allowed to speak a word; and teens were five times as likely to get a speeding ticket when three or more passengers were there. Thus, peer group pressure is strong with these ones.