There are many pressures that resist change. Chief among them is the conformity bias.
In our evolutionary history, this bias served a powerful role – conforming to the norms of a group (who have clearly survived) will help me survive along with the group.
Wheras diverging from social norms might cause me to lose out with the group, which also means I no longer have access to the resources of the group.
Conformity Bias and School Progress
Conformity bias is the idea that we tend to conform to our social group even when a bright idea is better than our group’s idea or way of doing. This bias rears its ugly head when an idea or practice causes us to stand out from our social group.
And even if we embrace a new idea or practice, we may resist sharing it if it doesn’t conform to the norms of the group.
The power of social pressure is always going to be stronger than the power of a good idea.
Conformity Bias refers to our tendency to take cues for proper behavior from the actions of others rather than exercise our own independent thinking or judgment. 
Conformity bias can help school leaders by using status and position to provide replicable behaviors and modes of thought. In essence, it is a tool for shaping culture.
When principals are unaware of conformity bias, school culture can be shaped in ways that serve objectives that are different than the school’s objectives.
Read more here: Mindset for Outlier Teachers
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[…] vision of continuity shifts the conformity bias and makes the change easier to […]
[…] many biases can trip us up. We’ve previously discussed the human flaw of conformity bias and attribution error. Those two errors can cause many […]