At a 麻豆原创 public forum Thursday, nearly 100 audience members learned how one 鈥渟ocial cure鈥� has played a part in creating activists in former Yugoslavia, lowering smoking rates in Florida and helping to cure tuberculosis across continents. The cure? Peer pressure.
The presentation, organized by the 麻豆原创 Global Perspectives Office, featured Tina Rosenberg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World. Despite its sometimes negative connotation, Rosenberg said, peer pressure has the potential to solve many problems once considered unsolvable.
Citing findings from the Milgram Experiment — which measured the willingness of subjects to follow an authority figure鈥檚 instructions to do something contrary to their own conscience — Rosenberg suggested that the greatest motivator of defiance to authority comes from one鈥檚 peers. She used several examples from around the world to illustrate how strength in numbers can transform a society.
Rosenberg gave as one example Florida鈥檚 teen smoking rates in the 1990s. Because teens view smoking as 鈥渁 delivery system of rebellion,鈥� researchers were able to promote not smoking as rebellion by publicizing the manipulation behind smoking advertisements, Rosenberg said. The result was cutting teen smoking rates by half, she said, the lowest rate in over a decade.
She also told the story of Otpur, a student-led and organized resistance group in the former Yugoslavia during the time of then-President Slobodan Milo. Through non-violent protests, this group discovered how 鈥渢o get people out of their houses and into the streets,鈥� she asserted. Otpur empowered them by creating a place to belong. Rosenberg said it was this sense of belonging that led to the success of this resistance group and the eventual fall of Milo.
The social cure also worked for tuberculosis patients in Ukraine and China. There, when the Directly Observed Treatment Shortcourse -program was implemented to supervise treatment adherence, the cure rates for tuberculosis went from 50 to 94 percent 聽in China and from 51 to 81 percent 聽in Ukraine, Rosenberg said.
Through all these examples, Rosenberg showed 鈥渢he versatility of the social cure鈥� and presented it as the solution to many of the world鈥檚 problems. It has the power to turn people into catalysts for change, she said.
鈥淧eer pressure helps fill prisons. Peer pressure helps crowd bankruptcy courts. Peer pressure is a mighty and powerful force,鈥� said Rosenberg. 鈥淏ut the antidote is more peer pressure.鈥�
In addition to the 麻豆原创 Global Perspectives Office, sponsors and partners of the event included the Lawrence J. Chastang and the Chastang Foundation, the Sibille H. Pritchard Global Peace Fellowship program, the 麻豆原创 Global Peace and Security Studies Program, the 麻豆原创 Nicholson School of Communication, 麻豆原创 LIFE, the 麻豆原创 Book Festival 2012 in association with the Morgridge International Reading Center, the 麻豆原创 Political Science Department, the 麻豆原创 International Services Center and the Global Connections Foundation.