Sociopath Community

Blending in and conforming to the group are central to the very existence of the group. However something I've noticed is that people who neither have a very strong will or concept and of who they are outside of society (by outside of society I don't believe you can ever be totally outside of others influence but view it as a scale) are so susceptible to group dynamics that they divulge their whole identity from it.

Similarly sociopaths are malleable and (not too sure about this) have a shapeless, adapting personally. So in that respect they are highly conforming. On the other hand they break this facade when their interests are threatened preferring to trust themselves rather then sacrifice for the sake of the group. Maybe this is due to some form of trust issues however that is not exclusive to sociopaths, perhaps it all boils down to (like so many other things with sociopaths) empathy.

Now to the final point, if groups operate under the assumption that they are engageing, attracting and punishing empathetic people then their system for doing these three things wouldn't fit the sociopaths value system (he gains nothing from seeing people happy). This seems to me to be one of the main reasons for sociopaths sometimes failing to adhere or unwillingness to adhere to group dynamics.

Blending in tends to be the most common approach. Those born with disorder especially tend to pick the importance of that up early if it's not disorders like emotional imbalance or conduct issues.

When they can't blend effectively, they tend to avoid them instead. Regardless of avoiding or blending, they tend to prefer more like-minded company, but some blenders may hate their own traits or believe that others will hate said traits enough to keep it hidden and bottle stress over it.

Self-image tends to remain intact despite the notion of blending while suffering mostly if they can't blend in well enough or resist the peer pressure when unable. Conformity is usually surface level with most things acquired being either because of those two things or from a genuine interest.

The topic of manipulation and influencing people has been discussed to death on this forum. What I aimed for (which was probably badly explaind (I blame lack of sleep)) was something in terms of how people see themselves and shape their self-image in relation to groups of people.

"How have you observed how groups have influenced other people and how as a sociopath do you believe it is different for you vs normal people."
Appeal to emotion is the first thing that comes to mind personally.

"Also to what extent do you think people act as part of a group vs as individuals?"
As long as people are impressionable, proper charisma and the right information can steer them.

"Also to what extent do you think people act as part of a group vs as individuals?"

I don't think I can answer this question, because I am not sure by which metric one should measure the "extent people act as a group vs individuals," nor do I know how to apply that metric to people in general. To further confound the issue, individuals vary in their tendencies to be swayed by the behavior of a group.

i witness this in school every day.you have a massive group and everybody follows it without a reason

thats what i thought too but i was speaking from what i know

but those individuals are rare.A group influences your every move.or most of them

High school, or whatever your equivalent to it is, tends to be when such behavior reaches its peak. It probably has to do with hormones and turbulent self-esteems.