Joseph D'Tien

Conformity and Compliance: What are the differences?


Conformity is the word to illustrate the voluntary (reluctant or not) acceptance of particular rules or trends. If you conform to something, you choose to do what it requires. For example, running after the latest fashion or following everyone in a standing ovation both reflects this notion. There are two reasons why people tend to conform. It’s the desire to be right, and the desire to be liked. In other words, they don’t want to score themselves wrong by separating their mindset from the public view on a particular issue, and they don’t wish to alienate themselves from the people around by singing from a different hymn sheet.

Let’s give some thought to this. If you have to choose between two wells in your extreme thirst: one is used by many, one is abandoned, will you go for the later? Almost anyone should queue for water supply from the crowded well, for fear of abnormally structured H2O or of estranged eyes directed at them. If everyone in a wedding is cheering with pints of beer in hands, will you have the lion heart to be the odd one out?



Compliance tells a different story. If conformity is personal voluntary acceptance of something, compliance is a reaction or a respond to a request made specifically for you. Consider this: your university professor asks you to write an essay on how technology has changed the way people live, you will definitely beaver away at it without the slightest complaint. Or, if your father orders you to go to bed immediately, will you stick your neck out and put it on the block, and tell him that you will not do so? Or, if your friends asks you for a lift to work, and you’re well on the straight way there, you will normally meet this demand, won’t you?



So, what is good about conformity and compliance, and what is bad about them?


From my vantage point, conformity is the easiest way to seek peace in life. Why rock the boat? Why set yourself off if the Boss the bear is having a sore head? Nobody would incline toward a deep boiling hole of water. And even if the problem is trivial, we often tend to raise our hand in consensus. But, if everyone is doing the same thing, and no-one possesses the nerve to speak out what everyone keeps in their heart, who will make a difference? Life is bedrock of changes and a fierce war of difference makers. I should not say that I am courageous enough to stick out like a sore thumb, but coming up with and putting forward a new idea could be the best way to success.



How about compliance? Obeying someone is undeniably a coin with two distinctly decorated sides. The upside is rightful obedience to logically, legally, morally right requests and orders, and vice versa is the downside. It goes without saying that parents are often best educators, and their words really carry weight. Carrying what parents tell us to do, fulfilling our household duties, finishing our homework before bedtime, getting up early to do morning exercises, paying respect to elderly people, giving care and delivering thanks to those who have assisted you, are all RIGHT things to do. Compliance is necessary. However, if a friend asks you to play truant with him, will you do it? Students love truants, but compliance in this case would be tragic.



In a nutshell, conformity and compliance hold dissimilar meanings. The main differentiating points lie in internally-motivated and externally-affected willingness to do something. Both reflects human tendency to take refuge from potential problems resulting from their being “the black sheep of the family”. But, just think about this: what pushes us forward if we are all doing the same thing?