conformitatea Flashcards
How do we know how to behave in social situations?
We know how to behave in social situations because of social norms.
What are social norms?
Social norms are belief systems about how to and how not to behave. They guide behaviour without the force of laws.
What is the purpose of social norms? (3)
To reduce uncertainty about how to behave - reduces cognitive load of having to work out in every situation what the right way of behaving is
To coordinate individual behaviour - the norms that are expected in a situation
To support equitable distribution of outcomes - ensuring everybody gets their fait share
What are transgressing norms?
When you behave in a way that leads to a negative response or social pressure to change.
What are the 2 types of norms?
- Descriptive - you learn what the rules are for behaving by observing other people
- Injunctive - even when other people are not present you might be influenced by what you know about the accepted ways of behaving in any situation
Experimental example of the types of norms
Cialdini, Reno, Kallgren (1990)
People dropped litter in an environment where the descriptive norms seemed to suggest that it was okay than they did in a clean environment
In a variant, there was a 3rd condition where there was just a tiny piece of litter and people were less likely to drop litter in that condition than in the condition where there was no litter - 1 piece of litter had been enough to invoke the injunctive norm that we are not supposed to drop litter
Limitation of Cialdini, Reno and Kallgren study
Focuses primarily on the influence of descriptive and injunctive norms, while the role of other factors, such as individual attitudes and values, may not have been considered.
What is conformity?
Conformity is the act of altering one’s beliefs or behaviours to match those of a group.
Why do people conform?
Deutch and Gerrard suggested 2 reasons:
Normative influence
Informational influence
What is informational influence?
When a situation is uncertain, people use others to work out what the right answer is because they want to be right and fit in.
It is usually associated with internalisation, where a person changes both their public and private beliefs, on a long-term basis. Attitudes have become part of how the person thinks
Once they have accepted that this is the right way of behaving that leads to private acceptance: there is a cognitive change
What is an example of informational influence?
Sherif (1935)
Uncertain task
Participants were asked to estimate how much a light moves - it was an optical illusion it wasn’t actually moving
Sherif tested college students individually over several trails, and each student perceived the light to move a different amount.
Later the students were randomly placed into groups of 3 and made further judgements. As group members heard one another’s judgement over several sessions, their judgements converged and a group norm evolved.
Participants were tested the subsequent day while they were alone, they still conformed to this group norm when judging the movement of the light.
Evaluation of Sherif study
+ It had made significant contributions to our understanding of informational conformity and group dynamics. It demonstrates how individuals rely on others’ judgments and opinions to establish a shared norm in ambiguous situations. The gradual convergence of estimates highlights the cognitive change that occurs as individuals accept the group’s informational influence.
- While Sherif believed he’d demonstrated conformity, Asch argued that the ambiguous nature of Sherif’s task made it difficult to draw any definite conclusions about conformity. Conformity should be measured in terms of the individual’s tendency to agree with other group answer on a task where the solution is obvious. Whereas Sherif’s study is a strict test of conformity where there’s no correct or incorrect answer to begin with because the light moving was an optical illusion.
What is normative influence?
Conforming because you want to gain social approval and be accepted by the group. You want to avoid social disapproval.
It is usually associated with COMPLIANCE, where a person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs, on a short-term basis.
What is an example of normative infleunce?
Asch
Task was easy
Which of the 3 comparison lines was most similar to the standard line
Told it was task of visual perception
They did it in groups but in each group there was 1 TRUE participants, the rest confederates
Confederates gave incorrect responses 12/18 trials
Results:
25% remained independent throughout
50% conformed in 6 or more trials
5% conformed in all 12 trials
average conformity rate 33%
In a variant:
Participants arrived late and Asch asked them to write down their responses in a corner. Conformity dropped to 12.5%
So giving your response publicly increases the degree of conformity
Why did participants conform in Asch’s study?
Perception: some believed the lines were the same
Judgement: some believed the lines were different but assumed they must be wrong
Action: some were sure they were right but didn’t want to stand out
This explains why conformity dropped but didn’t disappear when participants were asked to write down their answers
Evaluation of Asch’s study.
- The situation and task were artificial. The findings do not generalise to everyday life especially where those situations where the consequences of conformity are important.
- Sherif’s study did not raise significant ethical concerns, as participants were not subjected to any psychological or physical harm. However, it is important to note that participants were deceived about the true nature of the task, which may raise ethical concerns regarding informed consent.
What is referent informational influence?
Turner developed a third reason why people might conform to others based on assumptions made in social identity theory.
Individuals conform to the beliefs of members of groups they admire and consider as role models.
This influence occurs because individuals believe that the person they admire possesses knowledge in a particular area. They see that person as a reliable source of information and guidance, and they want to make similar choices because they trust their judgment.
When do people conform?
- Nature of the task
- Group consensus
- Group size
- Culture
- Individual factors
- Gender
- Nature of the task: accuracy
Aspects of the task may affect whether people conform and to what degree
-Baron-
Whether the degree of conformity would be affected by the importance of the task
Participants identified perpetrators from a line-up
Divided into 2 conditions: high and low importance
High importance conformed 51% of the times
Low importance conformed 35% of the times
- Group consensus
Unanimity: agreement of all people involved
Unanimity of the group was one of the main factors in deciding whether participants would conform
Asch found that conformity is reduced if the majority is not unanimous
If there is a supporting confederate the conformity dropped from 33% to 6%
When someone dissents, this serves as a model for remaining independent from the group.
-Allen and Levine-
Participants made visual judgements
3 conditions:
- participants on their own
- with incompetent supporter
- with competent supporter
Both the incompetent and competent support reduced conformity
- Group size
Asch found that relationship between group size and level of conformity was curvilinear
If there was 2 confederates, conformity was 13.6%.
When there were 3 confederates, conformity rose to 31.8%
Adding more than 3 confederates made little difference.
-Campbell and Fairey-
Effect of group size depends on the type of judgement and the motivation of the individual:
- No objective answer (taste in music) + desire to fit in - the more people the bigger the effect
- Objective correct answer + desire to be right - only need one or 2 people to conform
- Culture
-Bond and Smith-
Meta-analysis of studies using Asch’s paradigm across 17 countries
People from collectivist cultures were more likely to conform than people in individualistic cultures
- Individual factors
Personality
Hellmer - study of nursery school children
They measured personality characteristics of both children and parents
They looked at how the children conformed
Low extraversion in both children and parents was linked to the conformity in the children
- Gender
Early studies suggested that women were more likely to conform
But the studies that were designed meant that women were less familiar with the tasks so they were more likely to conform
-Sistrunk and McDavid-
Groups identified different objects which were typically masculine like a ranch and feminine like needle
Women were more likely to conform with the masculine objects and men were more likely to conform with the feminine objects
