Ch.6, Conformity Flashcards
Difference between compliance, obedience, acceptance
Conformity is a change in behaviour or belief to accord with others
Compliance: conforming to an expectation or request without believing in what we are doing
Obediance: compliance to a specific command
Acceptance: sincere, inward conformity
Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation
Asked participants how far a light moved, seeing if they would all conform to each others answers
Autokinetic Phenomenon: same as apparent movement
Our views of reality are not ours alone: one person giving a very high estimate impacted the next five people after them
Mood Linkage:
being around happy people can make us feel happy
Werther Effect: i
imitative suicidal behaviour when there has been a well-publisized suicide
Asch’s Line Study
All guessing the line, wanted to see if answers would influence each other depending on how many people present
More people present: more likely to be influenced
MIlgram Obediance Study
Electric shock
Ethical errors and methodological errors
PROBLEMS: experimenters often strayed greatly from scripts, may have caused severe stress for participants
Easy to abuse someone who is distant/depersonalized:
When the one making the request is physically close, compliance increased
Authority needs to be perceived as legitimate for people to comply
Predictors of Conformity
Group Size; groups don’t even need to be large for conformity to work
Unanimity: standing out with another person is much better than standing out by yourself; observing some else’s dissent, even when wrong, can increase our own independence
Cohesion: sameness and unity of a group = more power over its members
Status: higher status people tend to have more impact, tend to be more likely to express dissent
Public response: after making a public commitment, most people stick to their word
Normative vs informational influence
Normative Influence: because it is what is acceptable
Informational Influence: believe those people have more info than you and therefore you go along with it; CONCERN FOR SOCIAL IMAGE
Personality scores and conformity
Personality scores are poor predictors of specific acts of conformity but better predictors of average conformity. Trait effects sometimes seem strongest in “weak” situations where social forces do not overwhelm individual differences.
Cultural differences in conformity
Collectivist countries are more response to influence, more likely to conform
Conformity may reflect an evolutionary response to survival threats
Asserting Uniqueness and conformity
Individuals who have the highest need for uniqueness tend to be the least responsive to majority influence
Group cohesiveness and conformity
The more cohesiveness a group has, the more influential they are; creates uniformity
