Who Do Adolescents Follow and When? Status-Dependent Public and Private Conformity to Prosocial and Antisocial Decisions in a Public Goods Game

Peer influence is a central yet contested issue in adolescence, a developmental period marked by heightened social sensitivity. The present study examined how adolescents conform to prosocial and antisocial decisions of peers with different knowledge-based statuses in public or private contexts, while also considering gender and dispositional social conformity and prosocial tendencies. A total of 271 adolescents (132 boys, 139 girls; M = 17, SD = 1.495) were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. After completing dispositional conformity and prosocial tendencies questionnaires, they underwent a status manipulation task and then played a modified Public Goods Game. In general, adolescents conformed more strongly to high-status peers. Prosocial peer decisions prompted greater conformity in public contexts, whereas antisocial decisions primarily led to private conformity. Gender differences emerged in public and prosocial contexts. Boys showed stronger prosocial public conformity to high-status peers, while no gender differences were observed in a private setting. On the other hand, in antisocial contexts, both genders privately conformed to high-status peers. Dispositional conformity as well as specific aspects of prosocial tendencies moderated the effects of experimental factors on adolescents’ conformity. These findings highlight the influential role of high-status peers and suggest that leveraging such influence may help promote prosocial behavior and reduce free riding.