Conformity Flashcards
what is conformity?
change in one’s behaviour due to real or imagined influence of other people
why do people conform?
- did not know what to do in confusing or unusual situation
- did not wish to be ridiculed or punished for being different
- did not want to be rejected or thought less by group members
- gain acceptance from others due to fundamental need for social companionship
what is most powerful form of social influence?
obedience to order from authority figure
what is informational social influence?
- relying on other people as a source of information to guide our behaviour, believing that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is correct
- usually leads to private acceptance
what increases informational influence?
ambiguous situations, crises, others are experts
how do ambiguous situations increase informational influence?
the more uncertain we are, the more we rely on others
how do crises increase informational influence?
do not have time to stop and think about which course of action to take
how do experts others increase informational influence?
the more expertise, the more valuable the person will be as a guide in an ambiguous situation (even if they might not be reliable source of information)
Sherif’s (1936) auto-kinetic studies
- ambiguous situation
- people converged on common estimate and tended to conform to that estimate
- even when asked to answer on their own, participants continued to give the answer the group had given earlier → suggests private acceptance
how to produce private acceptance for energy conservation?
by using informational social influence
- Jessica Nolan et al. (2008) study:
- message containing information about the behavior of one’s neighbours, caused people to conserve more energy than did the other three messages
- Goldstein et al. (2008) study:
- informational sign in the bathroom stating that the majority of guests in this very room had reused their towels → increased hotel guests’ compliance with reusing their hotel
what is private acceptance?
conforming to other people’s behaviour out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right, to avoid standing out from the crowd or looking foolish
what is public compliance?
conforming to other people’s behaviour publicly without necessarily believing in what the other people are doing or saying
how does importance of being accurate affect informational social influence?
- high-importance conditions → more susceptible to informational social influence
what is the risk of informational social influence and how to overcome it?
- risk of mistakenly recalling information due to other people
- overcome by interviewing each eyewitness individually and allowing them to view lineup individually as well
when does informational conformity backfire?
during crises, when individual is confronted with frightening, potentially dangerous situations to which he/she is ill-equipped to respond → need for information is acute → behaviour of others is very informative
what are social norms?
implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviours, values, and beliefs of its members
what is normative social influence?
going along with what other people do to be liked and accepted by them, which leads to public conformity with the group’s beliefs and behaviours but not always private acceptance of them
asch-line judgment studies
- unambiguous situation
- 76% of the participants conformed and gave an obviously incorrect response on at least one trial
- participants demonstrated public conformity without private acceptance
- writing down version: conformity dropped dramatically
Gregory Berns and colleagues neural evidence
- answering alone & conforming to group’s answer → increased activity in the posterior brain areas dedicated to vision and perception
- not conforming to group’s answer
→ visual/perceptual areas of the brain not activated
→ amygdala activated, people feel arousing emotions, such as discomfort and tension
what are the consequences of resisting normative social influence?
- groups will try to get you to conform to their expectations
- say negative things to you and you start to withdraw from group