Chapter 7 - Conformity

Question 1

What is Conformity?

Answer 1

-A change in behaviour due to the real or imagined influence of others.
-In individualistic cultures, conformity is often interpreted as a negative. We conform daily, whether we are aware of our behaviour or not.

Question 2

What is Informational Social Influence?

Answer 2

-Conforming because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than our own (typically happens when we believe we don’t have all the info).
-We conform because we see others as a source of information to guide our behaviour.
-Can bring about private acceptance or public compliance.

Question 3

What is Private acceptance?

Answer 3

-Conforming to other people’s behaviour out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right.

Question 4

What is Public acceptance?

Answer 4

-Conforming to other people’s behaviour publicly, without necessarily believing in what they are doing, or saying.

Question 5

When do people conform to informational social influence?

Answer 5

-ambiguous or confusing situations.
-crisis situations (people are more likely to conform when the task is deemed as very important or crucial).
-when other people are experts.

Question 6

How to resist informational social influence?

Answer 6

-using other people as a source of information can be beneficial in some situations and disastrous in others.
-conformity influences how people see reality - accepting other people’s interpretation means seeing the world as they do. Rejecting other people’s interpretation means viewing the world differently from them.
-it is important to carefully consider if another person’s interpretation of a situation is more legitimate than your own.

Question 7

What is Normative Social Influence?

Answer 7

-Conforming to be liked and accepted by others.
-Conforming to avoid being ridiculed, punished or rejected by one’s group.
-Results in public compliance but not necessarily private acceptance (we behave a certain way to conform with the group even if we think what they are doing is wrong).
-Social Norms: implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviours, values, and beliefs of its members. Play an important role in driving and maintaining conformity.

Question 8

What are the Asch Line Judgement Sudies?

Answer 8

-Asch’s line studies showed that we conform even in a group of strangers.
-Participants were in a group with accomplices who gave the wrong answer on 12 of 18 trials.
-76% of participants conformed by also giving the wrong answer on at least one trial
-on average, participants conformed about 1/3 of trials
-participants were afraid of looking foolish, in from of complete strangers even though there was no risk of being punished or ostracized from the group

Question 9

What are the results of Asch’s line studies?

Answer 9

-bottom line: people do not want to risk social disapproval, even from strangers
-conformity dropped dramatically when participants were allowed to write their answers on a piece of paper instead of saying them out loud (also when they had an ally since it reduces exclusion, and might increase confidence)
-recent fMRI research shows that not conforming (going against the group) activates brain areas associated with negative emotions [Berns et al.]

Question 10

When will people conform to normative social influence?

Answer 10

-Social impact theory (Latané): predicts that the likelihood of conforming to social influence; depends on group strength, immediacy, and number.
–Strength: how important the group is to you
–Immediacy: how close the group is to you in space and time during the influence attempt
–Number: how many people are in the group
-Social impact theory predicts that conformity will increase when strength and immediacy increase.
-Conformity will increase as the group number does, but only up to a point (matters most in the case of incorrect responses, pressure to conform increases with every wrong answer).

Question 11

What are other conditions under which people conform to normative social influence?

Answer 11

-We are most likely to conform when the group is unanimous.
–it is very difficult to be the lone dissenter.
–however, just one other person not in agreement with the group is enough to decrease our conformity.
-Gender Differences
-Cultural Differences

Question 12

What are the Gender Differences of normative social influence?

Answer 12

-Small differences found, with women slightly more likely to conform than men in terms of public compliance; but no difference in terms of private acceptance.
-Both men and women are less likely to conform when they are knowledgable about the topic in question.

Question 13

What are the Cultural Differences of normative social influence?

Answer 13

-Conformity is higher in collectivist cultures than in individualist ones.
-Rather than viewing conformity as submissiveness or lack of independence, it is viewed as “cooperation” towards a collective goal - “we must all agree on the decision.”
-Murray and colleagues proposed that the threat of infectious disease may cause a culture to promote greater conformity to social norms.

Question 14

What are the consequences of normative social influence?

Answer 14

-Normative social influence can be used for good (ex: increasing charitable donations by putting large bills in a donation box)
-Social groups will bring a nonconformist into line by poor treatment and/or punishment.
-We can resist inappropriate normative social influence by:
–becoming aware of what social norms are operating
–finding an ally who thinks the way we do
–gathering idiosyncrasy credits; the credits a person earns over time by conforming to the norms of a group in the past

Question 15

How is normative social influence present in everyday life?

Answer 15

-Normative social influence and body image:
–perceptions influenced by both informational and normative social influence.
–seeing oneself as non-ideal can contribute to low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, depression, and negative behaviours such as eating disorders.

Question 16

What is Anticonformity?

Answer 16

-Anticonformity is the act of going against the behaviours of a specific group. It is considered as deliberate defiance of a group’s decision.
–the act of going against a group for the sacque of going against the group (internet trolls; ice cream example)
-Anticonformity defers from independence, in that the decision to be anticonformist is still dependent on the larger group’s behaviour.
-Possibly explained by psychological reactance.
-More observable in individualistic cultures than collectivist cultures (Mead and Barnard).

Question 17

What is Compliance?

Answer 17

-A change in behaviour in response to a direct request.
-Common compliance techniques include:
–Door-in-the-face
–Foot-in-the-door
–Lowballing

Question 18

What is the Door-in-the-Face technique?

Answer 18

-Gets people to comply with a request by first presenting them with a large request, which they are expected to refuse.
-Then they are presented with a smaller, more reasonable request, to which is hoped they will accept.
-This technique is based on the reciprocity norm: when the requester backs down from an extreme request to a smaller one, we feel obliged to return the favour (reciprocate) by acquiescing to the request.

Question 19

What is the Foot-in-the-Door technique?

Answer 19

-Gets people to comply with a large request by: First presenting them with a smaller request, which they are expected to accept. Then they are presented with the larger request, to which is hoped they will also accept.
-This technique triggers a change in self-perception.
–by agreeing to the small request, it activated people’s self-image of someone who helps others.
–once this self-image is in place, it makes it difficult not to agree to a second larger request (if it seems reasonable).

Question 20

What is the Lawballing technique?

Answer 20

-Gets people to comply with a request by:
–inducing a customer to agree to purchase a product at a very low cost, and then raising the price. (in lowballing you ask them something bigger right away before they’ve even completed the first task, whereas in Foot-in-the-Door you ask them to do something larger only once they;ve completed the first task)
–the customer will often still make the purchase at the new price because: the decision seems irrevocable (in too deep); they want to avoid disappointment; the new price is only slightly higher.

Question 21

What are other tricks of compliance?

Answer 21

-“Free Gifts” & Reciprocity: we feel compelled to repay what another person has given us. Through free gifts, we can become more compelled to support a request or become a frequent customer.
-Social Proof: the idea that people doing something can make something more acceptable (ex: vaccine sticker).
-“And That’s Not All”: high price/request –> pause (“must order now to get the lower price”) –> lower price or bonus product (present alternatives).
-The Sunk Cost Trap
-Scarcity & Psychological Reactance: scarcity is the degree to which something is limited or may become unavailable. Psychological reactance is the tendency to assert our freedom when we feel others are attempting to control us (reverse psychology).

Question 22

What is Obedience to Authority?

Answer 22

-Obedience is conformity in response to the commands of an authority figure(looking at strength and immediacy).
-Under strong social pressure, individuals will conform to the authority, even when this means doing something immoral.
-Stanley Milgram’s (1963) classic experiment examined if ordinary people can be influenced to inflict severe pain on an innocent other (attribution theory, Milgram wondered if it was the person or the context).
-He found that: 62.5% of participants fully obeyed the experimenter and gave up to the maximum of 450 volts shock. Even when the learner reported a heart condition, his cries did little to reduce the obedience.

Question 23

What are the roles of Normative and Informational Social Influence in Milgram’s study?

Answer 23

-Normative social influence made it difficult for people to refuse to continue with the study. Participants were afraid that the experimenter would be disappointed, hurt, or even angry if they quit (told study would be discontinued).
-Informational social influence plays an important role when a situation is ambiguous, unfamiliar and upsetting - all true in Milgram’s study (they didn’t know how the voltage felt). Participants looked to the expert for guidance.
–when the experimenter did not specify a shock and was later unexpectedly called away, full obedience dropped to only 20%.
–when two other “teachers” refuse to continue, full obedience dropped to only 10%
–when the experimenter leaves the room and another “teacher” gives the orders to continue, full obedience dropped to 20%
–when participants choose their own level of shocks to give, full obedience dropped to only 2%

Question 24

What are other reasons why we obey?

Answer 24

-The phenomenon of self-justification can offer insight into why people acted so inhumanely in Milgram’s experiments.
–once the participants delivered the first shock (which they justified because it seemed innocuous), it became very difficult for them to decide where to draw the line and stop.
-Participants obeyed because of the social situation, not because they were aggressive or inhuman.
–when given freedom to choose shock levels, participants chose a very mild shock level and only 2.5% went to the maximum level.

Question 25

When did people disobey in Milgram’s study?

Answer 25

-Disobedience was most likely to occur at 150 volts, the first time the learner asked to be let out.
-Sheppard and Young demonstrated that students shown the film of the Milgram study exhibited a higher level of moral reasoning than a control group. (being made aware of the power of authority figures made a positive impact).