Parenting
By Jamie Thompson
Updated: Jan. 22, 2021
Originally Published: November 2, 2015
Anyone who has dealt with a teenager knows that they often engage in reckless behavior. Parents find themselves lying awake at night, worrying about the safety of the car their teen is driving or whether their friends will encourage them to ignore traffic signals or partake in risky activities like drinking before getting behind the wheel. The reality of peer pressure weighs heavily on the minds of many parents, who fear their children might be swayed into reckless and dangerous actions.
Research supports these concerns. A 2005 study by psychologists at Temple University, including Laurence Steinberg and Margo Gardner, revealed that teenagers are significantly more likely to drive carelessly when they are with peers—twice as likely for younger teens. This effect was not observed in adults, indicating that the presence of friends amplifies the likelihood of risky choices.
In a follow-up study in 2011, Steinberg’s team utilized functional MRIs while teens played a driving simulation game. They discovered that the presence of peers activated reward-related areas of the brain more intensely in teens than in adults. The excitement of making a bold move while friends are around can be exhilarating. Annie Murphy Paul, writing for Scientific American, notes that the allure of rewards becomes more pronounced in social settings, prompting teens to seek out higher-risk experiences, such as racing against the light.
However, new research suggests that peer pressure can also yield positive outcomes. Steinberg’s recent experiment involved 101 teenage boys playing the Iowa Gambling Task, a computer card game that requires players to gather and assess information without being told which decks are beneficial or detrimental. Some participants played alone, while others played under the watchful eyes of three peers.
The findings were enlightening: teens performing the task with peers exhibited more exploratory behavior and achieved better results, learning faster from both positive and negative feedback. Steinberg remarked, “Our study suggests that teenagers learn more quickly and more effectively when their peers are present than when they’re on their own.”
Additional studies reinforce this notion. For instance, a 2004 experiment divided students into two groups to see how social context impacted memory recall. Those who were told they were forming an impression of a person performed better than those focused solely on memorizing details. Teens are notably attuned to social dynamics, making this stage of life ripe for harnessing peer influence for educational purposes.
As highlighted in Matthew D. Lieberman’s book, Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect, educators could enhance learning by incorporating social elements—like emphasizing psychological and relational contexts in history lessons, or utilizing peer tutoring in subjects like math.
Currently, traditional high school frameworks often discourage risk-taking, as students may opt for easier classes to secure higher grades for college applications. If we could redirect teens’ natural inclination towards social risk-taking into a more constructive learning environment, we might enhance their educational experiences.
In summary, small adjustments, such as peer tutoring, could offer significant benefits—a low-risk strategy with potentially high rewards.
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