Essay Bin

This entry will reflect upon my personal experience joining the Catholic Church (I quit again two years ago) and what effect social influences had on my decision. To be clear: I do not accuse the wonderful people at my Church of any vile intentions or seek to taint their noble social work. I do however hope there is room for exploring a 15 year-old Swiss juvenile’s social environment for influences that might lead him to passive behaviour.

All six of the Cialdini’s principles of social influence can be identified (Wang & Zimbardo 2010). I shall address them in turn, ordered by their perceived importance.

Social proof

First and foremost, I was a boy in a school where nearly everybody confirmed themselves. Complaining about how boring confirmation classes were was a big part of social life (even though I did not). An unnoticed French leave from these classes is still a source of pride for many. But nevertheless, everybody did it. So I found no reason to reflect upon my doubts about the existence of even a deistic God and went on with it.

Authority

The kind of authority that influenced me was much more subtle than an authority incarnated in a person. Rather, from all the established facts I allowed myself to question, the existence of God had an eminence about it that rendered me unwilling to raise my doubts assertively. It was especially heretical to me and it took quite some maturity later to allow myself to question His existence.

Scarcity

This influence was of a very earthly nature. Because one is to be confirmed during adolescence (usually 8^th or 9^th grade), I felt incapable of postponing my decision and to just go along with it was the least consequential decision (at least as perceived at the time).

Liking

Of course, all my peers were my friends and, like I pointed out, the people at my Church are genuinely wonderful. Why go against such a merciful environment?

Reciprocity

I think the prospect of having an ‘extra birthday’ that year did influence me and everybody. Some of my peers were most certainly agnostic about a theistic God but reasoned they would receive gifts and be able to marry in a church once if they confirmed themselves. For some, the deal was thus a rather economical one: gifts and marriage for membership and taxes. I myself always denied that I did it for the gifts, even to myself. But in retrospect I guess it is true that, besides all other factors, I really wanted that computer.

Consistency

I always considered myself and hopefully was a good student. I seldom caused big troubles intentionally and craved to be likened. This is still true. Once I sat in confirmation classes and we talked about how we conceive of God. When a friend explained that she thought of Him as an old man in the clouds, I remember smiling inwardly thinking ‘wrong answer’.

Tags: Catholic, Christian, Cialdini’s principles, religion, situationist approach, social influences, zimbardo

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 10th, 2010 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Evolution and Religion, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.