Conformity Flashcards
What is Conformity?
A form of social influence when a persons behavior or thinking changes as a result of group pressure
Informational Social Influence
Changing behavior or opinions because we think other people have superior knowledge to us
Normative Social Influence
Changing behavior or opinions because we want to fit in and be accepted by others
Describe Asch’s Conformity Study
AIM: investigate if people would conform to the opinions of others to give an answer they knew would be wrong
DESIGN: A lab experiment in which there was control of possible extraneous variables and all procedures were standardized. All participants were male American college students
METHOD: Groups of 7-9 people were shown sets of 4 lines. They were asked to state out loud which comparison line was the same length as the standard time.
There was 1 real participant in each group. Unknown to him, the other members in the group were confederates and each gave the same incorrect response.
RESULTS: Participants conformed to give the incorrect answer 36.8% of the time. 76% of the participants conformed tot he incorrect majority at least once. 24% of the participants resisted the pressure to conform.
CONCLUSION: Results showed that people conform to fit with a group even when they know they are wrong.
Evaluate Asch’s Conformity Study
Strength:
lab study - procedure is controlled meaning there is less likely to be an effect of extraneous variables and the procedure can be recreated
Limitation:
all participants were male - the results are only applicable to men as women may act differently
Limitation:
artificial environment - a task we would not usually do in our everyday lives, therefore changing their behavior from how they would act normally, making the study lack ecological validity
Group Size
We are more likely to adopt the behavior of other when we are in a group with three or more people who are behaving in the same way
Task Difficulty
We show higher levels of conformity when attempting a difficult task rather than an easy one
Anonymity
In public situations we face ridicule from others when they can hear and see what we say or do. However, when we can express our opinions in private we are anonymous.
Personality
Low self-esteem, low group status and low IQ have all been linked with high levels of conformity
Expertise
Conformity is less likely in situations where we have a high level of expertise as we are confident in our own opinions and know what to do.
