Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity
Changing in behaviour due to real or imagined influence of other people
Does not have to be negative can be positive but the most important thing is the influence of others
Cultural beliefs and conformity what are their views
American and western cultures tend to have negative view about conformity
What is informational social influence
relying on other people as a source of information to guide our behaviour: we conform becyase we think that they are better to help us choose
Experiment with the light shifting by SHerif
Asked to see how far the light dot has moved but in reality it does not move. The light is an ambiguous situation and people come to an average when they guess on their own but when they are put in a group the answers converge
Can informational social influence lead to private acceptance
Yes, in the sherif experiment with the light they were put back into their own individual guessing and they had already accepted the group answer and so their reality was altered thanks to informational social confmoity
What is the famous private acceptance and conformity (hint energy conservation and such)
The one where they had urged people to conserve electrcity and reuse the bath towels. Theyw ere given more information about how many people like them were doing the same thing and so they were more likely to conform
How does the importance od making a choice affect informational social conformity
The more important or pressing the situation is the more likely it is for people to conform because there is a greater need to be accurate
If there is a experiment where there is eyewitness statements required from people for a training, there were two groups; one was told that the answers they give will be used in real life examples and training while the other half were told that it was just a test
The people who were told that this is important will be more susceptible to conformity as they agreed more with the confederates answers. This is why there is a need for people to have individual line ups and to talk to the witnesses in private
When can informational conformity be bad
When you rely on others but tbh they do not know as well for example the contagion where emotions and behaviors can spread in a crowd quickly
When do people conform to informational social influence
When the situation is ambiguous
When the situation is a crisis
When other people are experts
What are social norms
The implicit or explicit rules a group as for the acceptable, values and beliefs of its members
Why do we conform to social norms
Because we don’t want to be rejected, humiliated or punished and because of evolutionary and because we are social and we receive emotional support
Normative social influence
Going along with other people in order to be liked and accepted
Does normative social conformity usually result in private acceptance
Nope usually only public compliance unlike informational conformity
Famous Asch line experiment
Not ambiguous at all, obvious which line it is and when people giave the answer on their own they gave the right answer but when others gave the wrong answers they also gave the wrong answers like over 76% of the time
Even though these were strangers
What are variations of the ASch line experiments
Like when they were allowed to write their answers on their own, they give the right answer
Is there conformity in unambiguous situations high importance situation
Yes there is some still: seen in the eyewitness again but there was less than the informational conformity one
Do most people think that they are under the power of normative social influence
People udnerestiamte that power and tend to think nah they are not that influenced like the conserve electricity one
WHat is the experiment that shows that people reject people who do not conform
The one where a confederate was acting as a deviant in the group discussion and they tried to convince the confederate but ultimately they kicked him out
When do people conformt o normative social influence
Social impact theory:
Strength
Immediacy
Number
What role does strength play in social impact theory
The more relevant and important the group is to you the more you are likely to conform
immediacy in social impact theory
The more likely to conform the more close the group is to you in space andtime
How does group size affect normative conformity
It starts to flatten when you have bigger group, people can start conforming even if there are only 3 or 4 other people. Also even if the extent of the pressure increases when you add more people, the additional effect of the added person will be less.
What are idiosyncrasy credits
Conform most of the time in your group so that if you sometimes deviate its not so bad
Hunter gatheres vs agricultural societies
Hunters are less collective and so less normative conformity but the arigulture societies are more collectivistic
What is key to minority influence
Consistency among the minority in opinion, usually not normative influence but rather informational social inlfluence
Boomerang effect of changing behaviour
The college students and alcohol because people who drink less than the descriptive norm might actually drink more because they are like “hey im not that bad” same thing with the conserving energy and electricity bill
Energy conservation experiment: descriptive norm only, descriptive norm plus injunctive norm?
In the descriptive norm only group there was a boomerang effect but in the descriptive plus injunctive norm there was a continued saving of energy for those lower than the average
Foot in the door technique
Getting people to comply with smaller request first to make them more likely to agree later to a second larger request because they are commited to this helpful course of action
Door in the face technique
Social influence strategy in which first asking people for a large request that they will probably refuse makes them more likely to agree later to a second, smaller request
Why did people obey aside from normative influences and informational influences
Conforming to the wrong norm: obey authority vs dont harm people (they also had no time to adjust their norms because it was high paces situation and busy)
They also had self jusitification because they were increasing in small increments (and loss of personal responsibility)
