Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A form of social influence that results from exposure to the majority position, when an individual’s behaviour, beliefs or values are influenced by other members of a reference group.

Question 2

What are the types of conformity?

Answer 2

Compliance, Identification, Internalisation

Question 3

Explanations for conformity:

Answer 3

Normative and Informational Social Influence

Question 4

Variables affecting conformity:

Answer 4

Group size, Unanimity, Task difficulty (as investigated by Asch)

Question 5

Conformity to social roles:

Answer 5

Zimbardo (1973)

Question 6

Research into conformity:

Answer 6

Asch (1955)

Question 7

What are the three types of conformity?

Answer 7

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

Question 8

What is compliance?

Answer 8

This occurs when individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group publicly but not privately.
Individuals comply with the beliefs and behaviour of those around them in order to be accepted or avoid disapproval/rejection, based on a desire to fit in.
It is a fairly weak and temporary form of conformity.
It is usually dependent on the presence of the group.

Question 9

What are some examples of compliance?

Answer 9

Smoking in the presence of your friends, but privately disliking it.

Question 10

What is Identification?

Answer 10

Individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group, because membership of that group is desirable.
This involves private and public acceptance.
BUT it is usually temporary and not maintained when individuals leave the group.
It involves elements of both compliance and internalisation.
The individual accepts the attitudes and behaviours as right and true, but is doing so for the purpose of being accepted into the group.

Question 11

What are some examples of identification?

Answer 11

Becoming a vegetarian whilst at university, because you identify with the views of your vegetarian flat mates, but then eating meat again when you leave university

Question 12

What is internalisation?

Answer 12

This is also known as ‘true conformity’ – it is the deepest type of conformity.
It occurs when individuals genuinely take on/adopt the beliefs/opinions and behaviour of others as their own.
Internalisation involves both public and private acceptance of the group’s behaviour and opinions – it results in permanent acceptance.
It is not dependent on the presence of the group.

Question 13

What are some examples of internalisation?

Answer 13

Converting to a different religion

Question 14

There are two main explanations for conformity:

Answer 14

1. Normative Social Influence (NSI)
2. Informational Social Influence (ISI)

Question 15

What is the dual process model?

Answer 15

Deutsch and Gerard (1955) proposed that there are two reasons WHY people conform: normative and informational social influence

Question 16

What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?

Answer 16

This is the desire to be liked.This is what forms the basis of NSI, we are motivated by our need to gain acceptance and approval, as well as a desire to avoid disapproval.
For NSI to take place, an individual must feel that they are under surveillance by the group, therefore they will conform publicly, but not necessarily privately.

Question 17

What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?

Answer 17

This is the desire to be right. It involves a change in an individual’s point of view so that it is in line with others. Therefore, there is a change in both public and private attitudes (internalisation) – taking on others’ beliefs and behaviour as one’s own.

Question 18

Evaluating Explanations of Conformity. P: Normative social influence can explain the results of conformity studies in unambiguous situations e.g. Asch.

Answer 18

E: After interviewing his participants, Asch concluded that some participants felt compelled to accept the mistaken majority’s norms to avoid being rejected. They therefore showed distortion of action, agreeing publicly, but not privately with the group.
Asch also suggested that normative social influence is moderated by the size of the group. As the size of the majority increases, there appears to be a heightened pressure to ‘fit in’ and be accepted as conformity increases.
C: However, Asch’s study may tell us little about why people conform in everyday life, due to the artificial nature of the task and unrealistic situation.

Question 19

Evaluating explanations of conformity. P: Informational social influence can explain conformity in ambiguous situations in which both public and private agreement occurs e.g. Jenness, Asch.

Answer 19

E: For example, in the ‘task difficulty’ variation of Asch’s research the differences between the comparison line lengths were made much smaller, so they were more similar in length. The ‘correct’ answer was therefore less obvious. Asch found that conformity increased.
C: This suggests that in instances of uncertainty, individuals will look to others for guidance as to how to behave.

Question 20

Evaluating explanations of conformity. P: However it can be difficult to measure and/or distinguish between the two explanations.

Answer 20

E: Normative and informational social influence may not be separate and independent explanations as Deutsch and Gerard argued.
It has been suggested that NSI and ISI often complement each other, working together to influence levels of conformity. Both NSI and ISI can explain conformity in Asch’s study and the variations. In post-experimental interviews, participants claimed that they conformed due to the risk of being ridiculed (NSI). They also thought that their perception of the lines must have been inaccurate (ISI).
Moreover, it isn’t always possible to be sure whether NSI or ISI is at work in laboratory studies or in real-life conformity situations.
C: Furthermore, alternative explanations for conformity e.g. dispositional factors (leadership/intelligence) have been put forward.

Question 21

What was Jenness (1932) study?

Answer 21

Participants had to guess the number of jellybeans in the jar.
They gave their estimates individually.
They then discussed their estimates as a group. After discussion, group estimates were generated.
Finally, they gave a second individual estimate.
It was found that the second private estimate tended to converge/move towards the group estimate.

Question 22

What did Jenness conclude?

Answer 22

Jenness concluded that the judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions, especially in ambiguous or unfamiliar situations.

Question 23

What conformity was Jenness?

Answer 23

INTERNALISATION
The conformity produced was motivated by informational social influence (ISI), where individuals in uncertain situations look to others for guidance as to how to behave.
Asch argued that the study tells us little, if anything, about majority influence (conformity) in non-ambiguous situations.

Question 24

How did difficulty of task affect conformity?

Answer 24

The differences between the comparison line lengths were made much smaller, so they were more similar in length.
The ‘correct’ answer was therefore
less obvious.

Question 25

How did the difficulty of task addect the level of conformity?

Answer 25

Increased from 32%.

Question 26

What was the reason for change in level of conformity for difficulty of task?

Answer 26

Informational social influence – individuals look to others for guidance as to what the correct response is.

Question 27

How did group size : size of majority affect conformity?

Answer 27

– When the size of the majority decreased from 6 confederates down to 1.

Question 28

level of conformity: groupsize:

Answer 28

When size of the majority increased, so too did conformity – conformity was 13% with two confederates and 32% with three confederates.
However, increasing the number of confederates beyond three had no effect, conformity remained at 32%.

Question 29

Reason for change in level of conformity. Group size

Answer 29

Normative social influence – as the size of the majority increases, there is an increased pressure to be accepted by the group.

Question 30

Variable: Unanimity: A non-unanimous majority:

Answer 30

When one of the confederates goes against the unanimous majority i.e. fails to give the same answer.

Question 31

Level of conformity : Unanimity

Answer 31

If one confederate went against the other confederates and gave the correct answer throughout, conformity dropped to 5.5%.
If a ‘rebel’ went against both the other confederates and the real participant, conformity dropped to 9%.

Question 32

Reason for change in level of conformity. Unanimity.

Answer 32

Reduction in the majority’s agreement broke the unanimity of the group, so there was less pressure to conform to fit in.
Participants also gained social support – an ally.

Question 33

Limitations: Sample, Cultural and Historical Bias
P: However, Asch’s sample was biased, both in terms of gender and culture…

Answer 33

E:…as he only tested American males.
C: This therefore lowers the population validity of his research findings, making it difficult to generalise the findings to females and those from other (collectivist) cultures – research suggests that females conform more readily.

Question 34

Limitations: Sample, Cultural and Historical Bias. P: Furthermore, Asch’s findings may reflect the time and culture in which it was conducted, as it took place in a period of US history when conformity was high.

Answer 34

E: In 1955, the US was in the grip of McCarthyism, a strong anti-Communist period when people were scared to go against the majority and so were more likely to conform.
C: This therefore lowers the temporal validity of his research findings, because levels of conformity may differ substantially at other points of time.

Question 35

Aim of Asch - Line study (1955):

Answer 35

Aim: To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers.

Question 36

Procedure of Asch - line study (1955)

Answer 36

Sample: 123 American male college students participated in what they were told was a study of visual perception.
6 confederates (stooges – accomplices, working on behalf of the investigator)
7 ‘participants’ sat in a room (6 confederates + 1 naïve participant)
The genuine participant was either last or second to last when giving their answer.
The participants had to call out, in turn, which of the three comparison lines, A, B or C, was the same length as the test line.
Critical trials: where confederates gave unanimous (the same/identical) wrong answers.
There were 12 critical trials (out of 18)

Question 37

Findings : Asch - line study:

Answer 37

There was a 32% conformity rate to wrong answers on the 12 critical trials (across all participants).
75% of participants conformed to at least one wrong answer (on the critical trials).
25% of participants did not conform at all.
5% of participants conformed to all 12 wrong answers (on the critical trials)

Question 38

Conclusions of Asch - Line study (1955)

Answer 38

Even in unambiguous situations, there may be strong group pressure to conform, especially if the group is a unanimous majority.
However, after interviewing his participants, Asch concluded that people go along with the views of others for different reasons:
Some people experience normative social influence and feel compelled to accept the mistaken majority’s norms or standards of behaviour to avoid being rejected.
Others experience informational social influence and doubt their own judgements - ‘surely they can’t all be wrong!’

Question 39

Distortion of action as a reason for conformity:

Answer 39

Where the majority of participants who conformed did so publicly, but not privately, to avoid ridicule.

Question 40

Distortion of perception as a reason for conformity.

Answer 40

Where participants believed their perception (of the lines) was wrong and so conformed – they believed the actors’ answers were correct, and were apparently unaware that the majority were giving incorrect answers. “I am wrong, they are right.”

Question 41

distortion of judgement as a reason for conformity.

Answer 41

Where some participants had doubts concerning the accuracy of their judgements and lacked confidence, so conformed to the majority view.

Question 42

Perrin and Spencer (1980) replicated Asch’s study in the UK using male students who were drawn from engineering, chemistry and mathematics courses.

Answer 42

They found only 1 conforming response out of 396 trials (a conformity level of 0.25%), where a majority unanimously gave the same wrong answer, which would suggest that Asch’s study was a ‘child of its time’ and lacks temporal validity.

Question 43

Smith and Bond (1998) conducted a meta-analysis of 31 studies using Asch’s line task across a number of different cultures.
Key findings and conclusions:

Answer 43

Conformity was found to be highest in Fiji = 58%
Conformity was lowest in Belgium = 14%
The average conformity rate was 25% for individualist cultures (e.g. Europe and the US), compared to 37% for collectivist cultures (e.g. Africa, Asia, South America).
Conclusions:
People in collectivistic cultures show higher levels of conformity compared with those who live in individualistic cultures. Why is this the case?
In collectivistic cultures, people emphasise loyalty to the group and being concerned about the needs and interests of others. Group decision-making is preferred to individual decisions. In individualistic cultures, people are more concerned with their own and their family’s self-interest and individual initiatives are valued.

Question 44

Limitations: Ecological Validity; Ethical Issues
P: Asch’s study could also be criticised for lacking mundane realism.

Answer 44

E: This is because the situation was unrealistic as it is unusual to be in a situation where you might disagree so much with others in terms of what the ‘correct’ answer is. The task was also artificial – it was relatively trivial, therefore there was really no reason not to conform.
C: This reduces the ecological validity of the findings, making it difficult to generalise them to everyday situations. Therefore, it might not tell us much about conformity in real life.

Question 45

 Limitations: Ecological Validity; Ethical Issues
P: Moreover, Asch’s study was unethical.

Answer 45

E: It involved deceit as participants were told that the study was about visual perception, not conformity. They also thought the other people (confederates) were genuine participants.
It also involved psychological harm - participants were put under stress as they answered either last or second to last and so were faced with the uncomfortable apprehension of disagreeing with the majority.
C: However, arguably it was necessary to deceive participants to reduce the risk of demand characteristics and the stress experienced by the participants was perhaps no greater than that experienced when in a group situation with strangers in everyday life.