Advantages–Disadvantages — Peer pressure influencing young people's behaviour

Teenagers rarely decide alone: what their classmates wear, say and do sets the standard they live by. Although this pressure can occasionally push a young person in a better direction, I believe its drawbacks are considerably greater than its benefits.

The main danger is that peer pressure reaches young people at exactly the age when they are least equipped to resist it. For most adolescents, the fear of being left out is stronger than any warning about their health, so a fifteen-year-old who would never buy an e-cigarette alone will accept one at a party rather than be the only person to refuse. The same mechanism explains why students skip lessons together or beg their parents for expensive trainers, as any teacher will confirm, simply to fit in with their friends. The consequences, moreover, outlast the friendship: a nicotine habit or a year of neglected schoolwork remains long after the group has drifted apart. There is also a quieter cost, because a teenager who is constantly adjusting to the group gets little practice in thinking for themselves.

Admittedly, the influence of peers is not always harmful. A student surrounded by classmates who revise seriously tends to raise their own standards, and many take up a sport or volunteering only because their friends do. However, these benefits depend entirely on falling in with the right crowd, which is largely a matter of luck. Moreover, even positive pressure teaches the same lesson as the negative kind, namely that the correct thing to do is whatever the group approves of. A student who studies hard only to keep up with friends may stop the moment those friends change.

To sum up, peer pressure can motivate young people when their companions happen to be ambitious, but it more often leads them to engage in risky behaviour and weakens their independent judgement. For this reason, I am convinced that its disadvantages do outweigh its advantages.