Positive Pressure

Day Six

Can peer pressure be positive? Why or why not?

To this I respond with a resounding YES!

Peer pressure has always carried such a negative connotation, but when used in the right way, it can have a positive result. Don't get me wrong. Peer pressure can be horrible. It can be very hurtful, and can cause quite a few problems.

But, there is a time and a place for just about everything. Peer pressure is one of those things.

Say you found 20 bucks in the parking lot at Target while hanging out with your girlfriends. You think it's a good idea to keep it. You could use 20 bucks to buy groceries, anyway. It's the holidays. Money is tight. 20 bucks would really help. Maybe the money was dropped so that you would find it because someone, somewhere knew you needed it.

"You should really turn that in to the customer service desk," says one of your friends. The others agree. Your head tells you that maybe you should pretend to return it. Keep it for yourself, but make them think you returned it. Who would know anyway? The person missing it probably has no clue it's gone. Besides, would you expect someone to turn in the cash you lost, or would you consider it gone?

"Turn it it," the girls keep saying. Well. You don't want to look like a thief in front of your friends.

They follow you in to Target.

You turn it in.

Peer pressure wins.

You may not know just who that money belonged to, or if they come back to claim it. But it could be someone's last twenty dollars. That may be the money they had to buy their kid a birthday present, or to help pay for the week's groceries.

You were pressured into doing the right thing. Even though you didn't want to.

Now. In all honesty, I would hope that peer pressure wouldn't be needed to turn in someone's lost money. Hopefully, the world is still full of good people that would do the right thing, regardless of who's watching.