Come on — everybody’s doing it. That whispered message, half invitation and half goad, is what most of us think of when we hear the words peer pressure. It usually leads to no good — drinking, drugs, casual sex. But in her new book, Join the Club, Tina Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be a positive force through what she calls the social cure, in which organizations and officials use the power of group dynamics to help individuals improve their lives and possibly the world. Rosenberg, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur “genius” grant, offers a host of examples of the social cure in action: In South Carolina, a state-sponsored antismoking program called Rage Against the Haze sets out to make cigarettes uncool. In South Africa, an HIV-prevention initiative known as loveLife recruits young people to promote safe sex among their peers. And in Illinois, “table groups” — small gatherings of believers who meet at a weekly potluck — are arranged by the Willow Creek megachurch as a way of deepening its members’ religious devotion.
