The Influence of Conformity Effect and Emotions on

Decision-Making

Ruofei Tian

Kunshan Kangqiao High School, Kunshan, 215300, China

Keywords: Conformity Effect, Emotions, Decision-Making.

Abstract: The article investigates how emotions and conformity effects impact decision-making. When people make

decisions based on what they believe to be the ideas of the majority, it is known as the conformity effect and

can have negative consequences. According to studies, conformity has a big influence on people's travel and

employment choices, since they tend to choose well-liked options. In a similar vein, risk-taking behaviours

are significantly impacted by emotions like happiness and melancholy. Research indicates that whereas

pleasant emotions frequently result in risk aversion, negative affect increases the propensity for risk-seeking.

The results demonstrate how important these elements are in influencing human choices, which can

occasionally lead to biassed or illogical results. The following tactics are suggested to lessen these influences:

making judgements calmly, evaluating possibilities objectively using a list of advantages and disadvantages,

and minimising reliance on the decisions of others. These methods can lessen the impact of emotional biases

and conformity while assisting people in making more autonomous, well-informed judgements.

1 INTRODUCTION

Everyone makes various choices every day, and

people always chose what was most suitable for us.

But is it really an advantage that influences our

choices? Understanding how people make choices is a

highly focused field in cognitive psychology. There

are several factors that can affect decision-making

(Dietrich, 2010). These factors, including past

experiences (Dietrich, 2010), cognitive biases

(Dietrich, 2010) influences people's choices (Dietrich,

2010). To understand the decisions made, one must

have a solid understanding of the elements that

influence the decision-making process (Dietrich,

2010). In other words, elements that influence the

process might also influence the result (Dietrich,

2010). These elements influence people's decisions

and include cognitive biases, as well as prior

experiences (Dietrich, 2010). One needs to have a firm

grasp of the factors influencing the decision-making

process in order to comprehend the choices chosen.

In other words, elements that influence the

process might also influence the result. These

influencing factors can make people make decisions

that are unfavorable to themselves and affect the

outcome, which can affect everyone even when

making laws and surgeries.

This article focuses on how conformity effect and

emotion affect decision, and investigates through

experiments whether these factors will affect the

decision and thus the results

2 INTRODUCTION TO THE KEY

CONCEPTS

2.1 Conformity Effect

The term "conformity effect" is used in social

psychology to describe conformity behavior and

conformance psychology. People are easily swayed

by other group members to abandon or alter their

opinions and actions, even if they are the same as

those of the group (Wang, 2014). Conformity effect

is the common phenomenon. In the new social media

developed environment, it was complex cause. The

"conformity effect" refers to the phenomenon of

public opinion self-impacting (Wang, 2014). People

will support the majority or prevailing position in

society that they believe to be in place or expected

(Wang, 2014). This implies that alternatives that seem

to be generally accepted are likely to garner more

support because success breeds further success.

628

Tian, R.

The Inﬂuence of Conformity Effect and Emotions on Decision-Making.

DOI: 10.5220/0014149600004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 628-632

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

Consequently, the perception of public opinion takes

on the characteristics of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

This phenomenon's metaphorical name originates

in American politics of the late 19th century and

refers to parade floats with bands that draw sizable

crowds of spectators who march behind the float and

take in the music (Liu & Chen, 2022).

The Conformity effect is one of several

hypothesized manifestations of "impersonal

influence" - the influence on individuals' attitudes,

beliefs, or behaviors that arises from their

impressions of the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors of

anonymous others who are outside their personal

sphere of contact (Schmitt-Beck, 2015). Other

examples include the "weak man effect," which

complements the bandwagon effect by stating the

negative impact of perceived majority or dominant

opinions, and - specifically in elections - the concept

of "strategic" voting (Schmitt-Beck, 2015). Voting

"in good faith" may result in wasted votes, for

instance, if voters feel that their chosen candidate or

party has only weak support from other voters, they

may back the second or even third best option in an

election. (Schmitt-Beck, 2015).

2.2 Emotions

Emotions are people's thoughts when they face

different situations. It is important part in psychology.

Emotions can also affect people's behaviors (Tyng,

2017).

Human cognitive processes are significantly

impacted by emotions (Tyng, 2017). Particularly

when it comes to controlling attentional selection and

inspiring actions and behaviors, emotions have a

significant influence on attention (Tyng, 2017).

Because the naturally constrained attention is more

focused on pertinent information, attention and

executive control are directly tied to the learning

process (Tyng, 2017). Emotions also assist in

encoding and help retrieve information efficiently.

However, the effects of emotions on learning and

memory are not always one-sided benefits, and

emotions may also have negative effects on action

and memory.

Since emotions control almost every part of

cognition, emotional experiences are common in

nature and are significant—possibly even essential—

in educational contexts (Tyng, 2017). A variety of

emotional states, such as boredom, worry, and

frustration, are linked to tests, exams, homework, and

deadlines (Tyng, 2017). Furthermore, the subject's

content might influence feelings, which can then

impact memory and learning (Tyng, 2017).

3 IMPACT OF CONFORMITY ON

DECISION

Student between 13 to 18 may always follows peers

decision to decide their occupations. 136 students in

class XII serve as the samples for this study, which

employs quantitative research methods (Fadilla et al.,

2017). The Likert scale instrument is used to collect

the data, and analysiss (Fadilla et al., 2017).

This research by Fadilla et almethod is

quantitative with career decision making as

dependent variable and conformity as independent

variable. This study uses the method of random

sampling in the cluster (Fadilla et al., 2017). The data

were obtained by Likert scaler, and regional analysis

was performed using regression analysis. The scaler

consists of favorable and unfavorable statements that

the result of research shows conformity exactly affect

students’ occupation decision (Fadilla et al., 2017).

The result of research shows conformity exactly

affect students’ occupation decision. In research,

the classification that was conformity was occupied

60. 29% (Fadilla et al., 2017). Occupation

classification is low, that was occupied 54. 41%

(Fadilla et al., 2017). The effective contribution rate

is 32. 9%, the coefficient's value is -0. 573 (p<0. 01),

and other factors account for the remaining 67. 1%

(Fadilla et al., 2017). It meant the more herd effect

students had, the less occupation decision students

made. Like the conclusion of this experiment, people

are susceptible to the herd effect and then influence

their choices. But the sample may be influenced by

other factors rather than the herd effect, and the

limited sample may affect its impact on the whole. It

may also only have the effect of conformity among

those students and affect the choice, not among

ordinary people.

Research by Mark A. Orloff el al is to study the

influence of herd behavior on decision-making by

two Focal insular lesion people that experiencing

cognitive impairment through their behavior in single

person and make decisions in social situations (Orloff

et al., 2024). Research shows that in personal

circumstances, humans will make choices according

to their preferences. If humans weigh their

preferences and information in public, humans may

give up their preferences and choose to make the

same choices as others. These findings show that in

the social context, when utility based risk

management is destroyed, following others' choices

may be a heuristic method of decision-making (Orloff

et al., 2024).

The Inﬂuence of Conformity Effect and Emotions on Decision-Making

629

Research by boto Garc í a studies the "drift" effect

in tourism decision-making. The author uses the

representative micro data of 28 European countries

from 2014 to 2016 and an empirical model involving

more than 60000 people to explain the potential

endogenous social impact effects using the method of

control function (Boto-García & Baños-Pino, 2022).

According to the study's findings, the percentage

of persons who travel overseas in their local area has

a beneficial impact on both tourism participation and

international travel, exhibiting a conformity effect

(Boto-García & Baños-Pino, 2022). The study also

found that: (i) the conformity effect varied among

countries, and (ii) the social effect of non travelers

was greater in the previous year (Boto-García &

Baños-Pino, 2022). According to certain research,

vacation travel allows people to display their

personalities, accomplishments, and status, which

could result in social contagion and imitation in the

context of the tourist sector (Boto-García & Baños-

Pino, 2022).

Research by Mark A. Orloff el al suggests that

conformity behavior does indeed affect students'

career decisions. This means that the greater the

conformity effect of students, the fewer career

decisions they make, but there is no

representativeness that can point to the whole (Orloff

et al., 2024).

Moreover Research by Boto Garc í a studied the

conformity effect in tourism travel decisions.

According to the research findings, the percentage of

persons who travel overseas in their local

communities has a beneficial impact on both tourism

involvement and international travel, exhibiting a

Conformity effect. (Boto-García & Baños-Pino,

2022).

These two experiments tested in different

populations whether they would be affected by

conformity effects when making decisions. For

example, in career choices, students tend to favor

popular careers chosen by the public, while in travel

choices, people tend to choose places where more

people go. This indicates that the choices made by

individuals in different situations are influenced by

conformity effects.

The study mainly investigates the impact of other

people's vacation plans on individual travel

participation (vacation travel) and destination choice

(foreign and domestic) in the context of summer

vacation travel (Boto-García & Baños-Pino, 2022).

There is relatively little research on the herd effect at

the overall level among a large population. It can also

indicate that the conformity effect among this group

of people will affect their decision-making.

4 IMPACT OF CONFORMITY

EMOTION ON DECISION

Cheng Peng's study examined the influence of

emotional states on risk decision-making, specifically

the ways in which human risk-seeking behavior was

impacted by emotions like happiness and melancholy

(Peng, 2024). The experiment involved 53 Chinese

participants, divided into two groups, each group

manipulated emotions through a short video clip to

induce happiness or sadness (Peng, 2024). Following

emotional state verification, participants engaged in a

gambling game designed to assess their decisions to

take or not take risks in a variety of gain-and-loss

scenarios. Compared to those in the cheerful

condition (44. 44%), participants in the sad condition

had a greater propensity for risk-seeking behavior

(60%). (Peng, 2024). In addition, there is a significant

difference between the gains and losses in the grief

group, with risk seeking behavior being more

pronounced in the losses. The t-test results (t=2. 66,

p=0. 0104) indicate a statistically significant

difference in risk seeking behavior between the two

emotional states (Peng, 2024). These findings suggest

that in risky situations, emotions significantly

influence decision-making processes, and sadness

promotes greater risk-taking tendencies (Peng, 2024).

This study contributes to understanding the emotional

drivers behind decision-making and emphasizes the

importance of considering emotional states in risk-

based decision-making models. However, this

experiment still has its limitations as it only studies

two emotions: happiness and sadness. It has been

proven that these two emotions can affect decision-

making, but it is unclear how other emotions affect

decision-making like anger, fear.

Research by Zhang, who organized relevant

literature, found that emotions have an impact on

judgment and decision-making (Zhang, 2017).

For example, when a person makes risk decisions

under the influence of anxiety, they often tend

towards safer choices (Zhang, 2017). A person who

is grateful to a certain school may even be grateful to

him willing to donate more money to the school due

to a lack of consideration for my own payment ability.

The integration of emotional effects can work

consciously or unconsciously in humans. Integrate

emotional biases. Due to arbitrary judgments or

decisions, emotions can be integrated and can lead to

biased decisions being made. For example, even

within the same mileage, the mortality rate of driving

is higher than that of flying, but when people travel.

they often fears flying and chooses to drive instead

(Zhang, 2017). Researchers have found that

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accompanying emotions generally continue from one

situation to the next situation, for example, anger

triggered in a situation will automatically trigger. The

motivation to blame others in another situation, even

if the goal of venting anger is to the reason for being

angry is irrelevant. In addition, typical characteristics

associated with the occurrence of emotions. The dots

are unconscious. Author’s examples all demonstrate

that emotions can influence decision-making. Unlike

the previous one, she did not point out specific

emotions but instead mentioned several emotional

biases. The downside is that she did not have specific

experiments to achieve the example, but instead gave

an example.

The effect of emotion on rational person behavior

is a topic of concern in the field of decision science,

according to study by Guoqiang Xiongon et al., and it

is a forward direction to carry out the pertinent

research using the method of decision neuroscience

(Xiong et al., 2014). In this study, 30 effect values that

were taken from 19 literature sources were analyzed

using the meta-analysis approach (Xiong et al., 2014).

The outcome demonstrates that emotion significantly

affects the behavior of rational people (Xiong et al.,

2014). This finding indicates how emotion and

rational behavior are related, as well as where future

research should go. Their investigation also reveals

that emotional valence significantly improves the two

parties' relationship (Xiong et al., 2014). A rational

individual may be influenced by positive emotions to

act in a risk-seeking or cooperative manner when

making decisions, or by negative emotions to act in a

risk-averse or non-cooperative manner when making

decisions in social situations (Xiong et al., 2014).

There is no clear conclusion on the direction of

change in the amplitudes of each EEG component,

but the differences in EEG component amplitudes

indicate the influence of good or negative emotions

on rational human behavior (Xiong et al., 2014).

Compared to other experiments, this study

investigated people of different age groups, which is

more representative and can better explore the impact

of emotions on human decision-making.

5 SUGGESTIONS

All the experimental studies above indicate that

conformity and emotions can influence the choices

people make. The more conformity effects there are,

the greater the impact on decision-making. People

will be influenced by others' multiple choices. On the

other side, emotions significantly influence decision-

making processes, and sadness promotes greater risk-

taking tendencies.

These experimental studies demonstrate the

severity of conformity and emotional impact, which

can lead people to make decisions that are detrimental

to them with serious consequences. These are three

methods to minimize their impact as much as

possible.

For conformity, people can try not to look at other

people's choices as it can affect our own thoughts and

make us doubt ourselves. Be more confident in

people's choices and believe in yourself.

For emotion, it is best not to make any choices

when we have intense emotions, as this may be

something we do unconsciously. We can count prime

numbers to quickly calm down and make the right

choices with a clear mind

The best solution is to list the pros and cons of

each decision and then compare them. Objective data

will not change due to our own reasons, and

constantly making a comparison list will make people

think about the problem without bias.

6 CONCLUSION

This study emphasises the impact of emotions and

conformity effects on judgement. These results

highlight how social and psychological aspects

impact human decision-making. People should

refrain from depending too much on the opinions of

others, and make sure they are made in an

emotionally neutral state. Furthermore, objective

techniques like lists of advantages and disadvantages

can encourage more logical decision-making. This

study provides valuable insights into human behavior

and offers practical strategies to reduce biases,

contributing to more effective decision-making in

both personal and societal contexts.

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