Conformity in the teenage years has been studied by putting young people in situations where they are asked to make a choice or decision where that appears to go against what everyone else in the group is saying. The fascinating thing about the results of these studies is that conformity is not spread equally across all age groups. Thus, the willingness to go along with others reaches a peak around the age of 14. After that, this tendency decreases, so that by 16 or 17, young people are much more able to disagree with the group and to stand up for their own opinion. This is an important finding. It demonstrates that the influence of the peer group is not the same across all ages. As young people mature, they become more resilient, and more able to defend their opinions as individuals.