Imitation of the immediate environment, What is it?

One day, not so long ago, I had a conversation with a lady I had known for a long time, a college professor in New York.
I argued that all children try to copy their parents, adults and their peers in their behavior if their behavior aroused their interest and desire to do the same or be the same.
So, the proximity effect has a powerful influence on behavior. We adopt habits from the people around us. We copy the way our parents argue, how peers flirt with each other, how colleagues achieve results. If our friends smoke cigarettes or even marijuana, we will try it too.
One of the most powerful things we can do to form better habits is to become part of an environment in which our desired behavior is normal. It's important to surround yourself with people who have the habits you'd like to develop.
Nothing keeps you motivated like belonging to a community. This turns a personal search into a collaborative one. The shared identity begins to reinforce the personal identity. This is why staying part of the group after achieving a goal is critical to maintaining habits.
The role of family and friends in forming habits is great.
Whenever we are unsure how to act, we look to the group to guide our behavior. This is usually a smart strategy.
But the other side is also possible. The normal behavior of society often overrides the desired behavior of the individual.
There is enormous internal pressure to conform to group norms.
Most of the time, we would rather be wrong in a crowd than be right alone.
When changing habits involves challenging society, change is unattractive. When changing habits involves adapting to society, change is very attractive.
Imitating authority is another important component in our lives.
People everywhere strive for power, prestige and status.
We are attracted to behavior that will earn respect, approval, admiration, and status. Once we adapt, we begin to look for ways to stand out.
This is one of the reasons why we care so much about the habits of highly effective people. We try to copy the behavior of successful people because we also want to succeed. Many of our daily habits are imitations of people we admire.
• Cook according to your favorite chef's recipe.
• Borrowing behavior
favorite artist.
• We imitate communication style
boss
• We often imitate people
whom we envy.
People with high status enjoy the approval, respect, and praise of others. And this means that if a behavior can bring us approval, respect and praise, we find it attractive.
We also tend to avoid behavior that would lower our status. We tidy up the hedges and mow the lawn because we don’t want to be a messy neighbor.
We constantly wonder what others will think of me and change our behavior depending on the answer.
I want to emphasize that the main thing is that the environment in which we live determines what behavior will be attractive to us.
If a behavior can bring approval, respect and praise, we find it attractive and follow it.
Here are a few of my thoughts, which I hope will convince my friend of the correctness of my settings.
I will listen with great interest to comments from people who have their own opinions on this issue.
Gennady Kupisok,
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences