Conformity Flashcards
what is conformity?
A type of social influence involving a change in behavior as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group
Types of conformity
compliance- superficial conformity, agreeing with the majority opinion but privately disagree.
identification-conforming to the opinions of the group as we value it and want to be part of it. Not really agreeing with everything, private beliefs may change only in the presence of the group.
internalization-genuinely accepting the norms, public and private beliefs change to fit the group, permanent and deepest level of conformity
Asch’s baseline procedure (line experiment)
conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
procedure
lab experiment, 50 male college students participated in a ‘visual perception test’. Asch put a naive pps in a room with 7 confederates who had already agreed their answers in advance. Shown 2 cards, 1 a standard line the other 3 comparison lines. 18 trials, each pps had to state aloud which comparison line (A,B,C) was most similar to the target line.
Findings
Asch measured the number of times each participant conformed to the majority view. 32% of pps conformed with the clearly incorrect majority compared to 0.04% of the control group who had no pressure to conform. Over the 12 critical trials, 75% of participants conformed at least once, 5% conformed on all 12 trials, 25% of participants never conformed.
variations/variables investigated
Group size- conformity increased with group size to a point, presence of more confederates made little difference, 1 confederate in the group conformity was 3%, with 2 increased to 13%, and with three or more it was 32%
unanimity- Asch wondered if the presence of a non-conforming person would affect the naiive pps conformity. He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederate. The real pps conformed less in the presence of of a dissenter, thought independently.
task difficulty-When the (comparison) lines were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased. (ISI)
Evaluation (strengths)
-support from other studies for effects of task difficulty, Todd lucas et al asked pps to solve hard and simple math problems. Given answers from 3 other students (fake), pps conformed more often when problems were harder.
Evaluation (weakness)
- limited application, biased sample, all male students, lack of population validity, results cannot be generalized to other groups.
- artificial tasks, don’t resemble real situations, lack of ecological validity and cant be generalized to reality, pps knew they were in a study (demand characteristics)
Explanations for conformity
Deautsch & Gerard theory, 2 main reasons for conformity
ISI- conforming to gain knowledge or are ambiguous we look to the group for guidance, internalization, avoid standing out
NSI- conforming to group pressure to fit in with the ‘norm’ gain approval, avoid social punishment emotional rather than cognitive process, compliance
Evaluation (strengths)
- research support for NSI as an explanation of conformity, Asch interviewed pps said they conformed as they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and were afraid of disapproval. When they wrote their answers conformity fell to 12.5% as there was no normative group pressure
- research support for ISI, Todd lucas et al found pps conformed more to incorrect answers given when math problems were difficult, When problems were the situation became ambiguous, they didn’t want to be wrong so they relied on the answer they were given
Evaluation (weakness)
-NSI, individual differences, does not predict conformity in every case, some people are greatly concerned with being liked by others (nAffiliators). McGhee and Trevan found students who were nAffiliators were likely to conform. Shows NSI underlies conformity for some more than others
