Sociologists love groups and are fascinated by social organization and collective action. Indeed, some define sociology as the study of things we do together. Yet, in a culture that celebrates individualism, the power and importance of the collective is often ignored, misunderstood, or believed to be negative. There is no better example of this than the common-place notion of “peer pressure” which is almost always assumed to be a bad thing.

Cutting against this is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tina Rosenberg‘s recent W.W. Norton book Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World.  It is not a particularly scholarly book but it is wonderfully written, well-thought, and researched (Rosenberg draws upon academic research from the fields of public health, communications and social psychology, and microeconomics and cites sociologists including Robert Wuthnow and Robert Bellah)—and thoroughly sociological.

Rosenberg was interviewed about her book this week by Minnesota Public Radio’s Marianne Combs. One of the great points she makes in both the book and the interview is that information is not the key to changing behavior. Motivation is. And motivation, in her view, comes from identity, which comes primarily from those around you. Happily for the world, this means peer pressure can be a pro-social force for positive change.