Peer pressure is the influence exerted by a peer group, encouraging individuals to change their attitudes, values, or behaviors in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, in which individuals are "formally" members (such as, political partys and trade unions), or social cliques in which membership is not clearly defined. A person affected by peer pressure may or may not want to belong to these groups. They may also recognize dissociative groups with which they would not wish to associate, and thus they behave adversely concerning that group's behaviors.^{[citation needed]}

Peer pressure is most commonly associated with youth, in part because most youth spend large amounts of time in schools and other fixed groups that they do not choose and are seen as lacking the maturity to handle pressure from friends. Also, young people are more willing to behave negatively towards those who are not members of their own peer groups.^{[citation needed]}

Peer pressure can also have positive effects when people are pressured toward positive behavior, such as volunteering for charity or excelling in academics or athletics, by their peers. This is most commonly seen in youths who are active in sports or other extracurricular activities where conformity with one's peer group is strongest.^{[citation needed]}

Lori Palatnik (b. 1960) is a Jewish educator, public speaker and author. She is the founding director of the Jewish Women's Renaissance Project, dubbed "Birthright for Women", which has brought over 1,000 women to Israel since the summer of 2009 on a subsidized, 9-day tour-and-learn program. She also appears on her own weekly video blog, "Lori Almost Live", on the website of Aish.com, which is seen by 50,000 viewers each month. In 2010, she was one of 20 semi-finalists for the Jewish Community Heroes award presented by the Jewish Federations of North America.

Palatnik was born in Toronto, Canada. She majored in communications at the University of Windsor and earned a special degree in advertising. She began her career in radio copywriting. In 1985 she was a participant on the first Jerusalem Fellowships trip to Israel sponsored by Aish HaTorah, and her experience was so positive that she decided to take time off to learn more about Torah Judaism. She studied at the EYAHT and Neve Yerushalayim colleges for advanced Jewish learning in Jerusalem, and was introduced to her husband, Yaakov Palatnik, a native of Chicago.

David Eagleman (born April 1971) is a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action and the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. He is best known for his work on time perception,synesthesia, and neurolaw. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a council member in the World Economic Forum, and a New York Times bestselling author published in 27 languages.

David Eagleman was born April 1971 in New Mexico to a physician father and biology teacher mother. An early experience of falling from a roof raised his interest in understanding the neural basis of time perception. He attended the Albuquerque Academy for high school. As an undergraduate at Rice University, he majored in British and American literature. He spent his junior year abroad at Oxford University and graduated from Rice in 1993. He earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in 1998, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute.

Eagleman directs a neuroscience research laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine. He serves on the editorial boards of the scientific journals PLoS One and Journal of Vision. Eagleman sits on boards of several arts organizations and is the youngest member of the Board of Directors of the Long Now Foundation. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Next Generation Texas Fellow, a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, a council member on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Brain & Cognitive Sciences, and was recently voted one of Houston's Most Stylish men. Italy's Style magazine named Eagleman one of the "Brainiest, Brightest Idea Guys for 2012" and featured him on the cover.

Jean Marcel Tirole (born August 9, 1953) is a French professor of economics. He works on industrial organization, game theory, banking and finance, and economics and psychology. Tirole is director of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Foundation at the Toulouse School of Economics, and scientific director of the Industrial Economics Institute (IDEI) in Toulouse. After receiving his PhD from MIT in 1981, he worked as a researcher at l'École nationale des ponts et chaussées until 1984. From 1984-1991 he worked as a Professor of Economics at MIT. He was president of the Econometric Society in 1998 and of the European Economic Association in 2001. He is still affiliated with MIT, where he holds a visiting position.

Tirole received engineering degrees from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1976, and from École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Paris (1978) and a "Doctorat de 3ème cycle" in decision mathematics from the Paris Dauphine University (1978). In 1981 he received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mobb Deep is an American Hip-Hop duo from Queensbridge, Queens, New York, U.S., that consists of Havoc and Prodigy. The duo is "one of the most critically acclaimed hardcore East Coast Hip-Hop groups". The group is best known for its dark, hardcore delivery as exemplified by the single "Shook Ones Pt. II". Mobb Deep have become one of the most successful rap duos in Hip Hop having sold over three million records. The majority of their albums have been critically acclaimed, in particular The Infamous in which is considered to be classic among avid Hip-Hop listeners and general fans. They are partially credited for the resurgence of East Coast rap in the early to mid-'90s. Havoc and Prodigy were also judges for the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers and breakthroughs.