Conformity Flashcards
Conformity
A change in behaviour or belief to accord with others
No one directly asking you to change, you have to decide
When an individual adheres to group norms and standards
So behaviour lies within range of tolerable behaviour
the tendency to change perceptions, opinions, and behaviours to match group norms
Public change
Going along cause everyone else is doing it. Even if you don’t believe
Private change
Everyone else is right
Changing beliefs and behaviour
Informational influence
You think you are wrong
Conformity through belief others are correct in their judgment
Accepting info from others that valid
Used when members want to reduce uncertainty, solve a complex problem unfamiliar to them
Looking at others for guidance
Leads to private conformity— actually changing beliefs
Normative influence
Heightened when members speak publicly rather than anonymously
Conformity due to fear of negative social consequences of deviance
Conforming to the expectations of others (norms) in order to receive social rewards or avoid punishments contingent on meeting these expectations
Being liked is an important reward
Leads to public conformity—just behaviour not beliefs
Majority influence
Process when groups majorly pressure individual to adopt a specific position on some issue
Hard to be the person who doesn’t believe what others do. Uncomfortable
Minority influence
An attempt by an active minority within a group to persuade majority members to accept their viewpoint and adopt a new position
Just need one other person to disagree with you
hard to be the person who does not believe what others do, uncomfortable
Compliance
Changes in behaviour but not belief (may or may not)
Changing behaviour because of a request
When targets behaviour conforms to sources requests or demands
Acceptance
Changes in behavior and belief
Obedience
Changes in behaviour due to the command of authority
Changing because of authority
special version of conformity
ASCH’S STUDIES OF GROUP PRESSURE
Conformity paradigm—in groups, influence flows in many directions
Impact of majority influence
Created a situation where the majority agreed on obviously incorrect manner
Show groups can pressure members to change judgements
All but 1 working for experiment
Public compliance without public acceptance
Decide which line was close— majority opinion heavily impacted participals in 12 critical trial, 1/3 were incorrect— some 50% or more
Participants knew it was wrong, discrepancy, but puzzled under pressure— some thought they misunderstood experimental instructions
The Norm of Reciprocity
Help those who have helped you
Not help those who denied help
Also depends on obligations
Try to match help
More likely to help someone who has done a favor for you
One should reply to another’s disclosures with a similar amount of intimacy
Most common in new relationships and developing friendships
Foot-in-the-door
Small request, follow with larger
Ie/door to door sales
Door-in-the-face
Opposite, less successful.
Start with large request( that you know they will say no),follow with smaller request
Lowballing
Get someone to agree to something and change terms
Ie/ cell phone plans
That’s not-all
Start with inflated request and then sell for original
Makes it seem like a better deal
MILGRAM’S OBEDIENCE STUDIES
Authority figure getting participants to engage in behaviours that could hurt a third party
Understand conditions which person would follow questionable orders
Electric shock experiment—2/3 went to the end—experimenter is telling them to keep going
As soon as you tell someone they have no choice. 100% say no
what breeds obedience?
The victim’s distance (physical and psychological) - the effect of depersonalization
closeness and legitimacy of authority - hard to say no, institutional authority
the liberating effects of group influence
- group loyalty as constructive or heroic - because of our tendency to conform to groups - can be good or bad
reflections on the classic studies
Behaviour and attitudes - attitudes follow behaviour
▪ Relationship is weak when external influences
are overwhelming (influenced by situation/ environment)
▪ The power of the situation
▪ Trying to break with social constraints shows us
how powerful they are
▪ Avoiding committing the fundamental
attribution error - says our default. is it smt about the person + situation - if you have the experience yourself you are less likely to do it
▪ recognize Milgram’s participants as ordinary
people
group size
the larger the group the harder it is to say no
the more people that do something, the more people that will conform
Unanimity (predicts conformity)
Less like to conform if another person breaks from majority
Validation and social support, reduce pressure to conform
the more you cave the more you will conform
how important is it to belong in a group to you
Cohesion (predicts conformity)
Desire to remain in a group
Status (predicts conformity)
Levels of esteem and perceived self competence
the higher the status of the group the harder it is to say no and descend
public response
increases conformity
No prior commitment
Commitment to future interaction
how much you care about what you are conforming to
if you cave the more likely you will be to say something
Personality
A better predictor of behaviour when social
influences are weak
individual differences
how environment shapes us
Reactance
A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom
Persuasion attempt begins to feel like their independence and freedom is being threatened
Feeling to reassert control
Asserting uniqueness
The preference for being moderately unique
culture (who conforms)
how much it happens
higher in western culture
can be scarring if you experience culture shock
gender (who conforms)
irrelevant for conformity
assumes women are more, but are not
social roles (who conforms)
everyone creates a social script which is pretty much conformity
go to lecture, you sit down and take notes
code switching
type of conformity
alternating between two languages in a conversations
some people do it to make it more comfortable
example: accents - usually minority group to majority
deliberate choice of language - reflect that you are still trying to remain in your community
