Chapter 6: Conformity Flashcards
What’s compliance?
- Conforming behaviourally but not in belief
- Ex. you want to speed but don’t do it cause no one else is doing it
What’s obedience?
- Conforming to a direct order
- Ex. Formatting citations to APA because it’s in your best interest for your grade
What’s acceptance?
- Conforming behaviourally and in belief
- Ex. Standing in line at the grocery store
- Think it’s the right thing to do anyways
What were some shocking results from Milgram’s obedience study?
- Just over 60% of participants remained until the very end
- They conformed regardless of how wrong it felt
- The ‘teachers’ were visibly uncomfortable whilst administering the shocks
Why did Milgram do the obedience study?
- Wanted to understand how Nazis were able to do such cruel acts to innocent people
- Wanted to see how far people would go to conform
What did Milgram discover affects obedience?
- The victim’s distance
- 30% obeyed when “teachers” had to force “learner”s hand onto shock plate
What approximate percentage in WW1 would fire their weapon at the enemy?
- Only about 15%
What are different strategies employed by militaries to increase acceptance?
- Distance (depersonalization, use of drones)
- Desensitization (getting people used to the idea of killing)
- Moral justification (doing it for your country/protect your soldiers)
- Euphemistic labelling (don’t say kill, say ‘engage’ or ‘neutralize’)
- Displacement of responsibility (you’re not the one deciding to kill, you’re taking orders)
- Cognitive reframing (you should be proud of killing)
What was Sherif’s studies of Norm Formation?
- Participants were brought into dark room and asked to say how far the dot moved, but the dot doesn’t move at all
- Next day they were brought in with a group, and eventually after repeated trials they would converge to a single answer, even though the dot wasn’t actually moving
What are Asch’s studies of group pressure?
- Participants told it’s an experiment on perception
- Brought into table group with confederates and must say which line is longest
- Everyone before them keeps saying the wrong lines
- Participant gets confused and concerned, so some of them would conform to what the confederates said
What were the major findings from Asch’s studies of group pressure?
- Approximately a third of the people conformed to the group even though there was no pressure to do so
- Still means about 63% of the participants still pointed out the right answer
What factors affect conformity?
- Group size (greatest at around five people)
- Unanimity (more conformity if there is more agreement among everyone else. All you need is one dissenter to decrease conformity)
- Cohesion (more cohesion = more conformity)
- Status (higher status = higher conformity)
- Credibility/expertise (more believable)
- Anonymity/public response
- No prior commitment
Which personality trait makes people more susceptible to conform?
- Those high in agreeableness
T/F: Individualistic cultures are more likely to conform than collectivistic cultures.
- FALSE
- Conformity is viewed more positively in collectivistic cultures
What are the two routes to conformity?
- Normative influence - Conforming to fulfill other’s expectations, to avoid rejection, or to gain their approval. Leads to public compliance.
- Informational influence - Conforming to be right in ambiguous situations. Leads to private acceptance, want to know what’s right. Trying to get clues on how to act
What’s the chameleon effect?
- We adopt similar behaviours as those who surround us (a form of mimicking)
What’s the Werther effect?
- Imitative suicidal behaviour coined by sociologist David Phillips
What other major factors contributed to obedience levels in Milgram’s obedience studies?
1) Victim’s emotional distance
2) Authority’s closeness and legitimacy
3) The institution the authority was apart of
4) Liberating effects of a disobedient fellow participant
T/F: Restricting a person’s freedom often produces anti-conformity behaviour
- TRUE
- Ex. Underage drinking
