Conformity and types of conformity Flashcards
What psychologist studied conformity?
Asch
What was the aim of Asch’s research?
How much people will conform to opinions of others
What’s the procedure of the baseline study?
123 American white men
- split into groups of 6 to 8
- only 1 genuine participant (placed last or 2nd to last)
- rest are confederates
- 2 white cards (line x and 3 comparison lines - which matches line x)
What does conformity mean?
A change in a persons behavior or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a group or a person
What are confederates?
Participants who are aware of the experiment and who purposely chose wrong answers in the context of Asch’s study.
What’s the overall result of Asch’s baseline study?
25% of participants never chose the wrong line
- participants agreed with confeds 36.8% of the time
= conformity took place 1/3 of the time
What else did Asch do?
Conducted a variables investigation into conformity after baseline study
What consists of group size as a variable?
- Confederates varied from 1-15
- Increased group size = more conformity
- 3 confederates: 31.8% of participants conformed
- Flatlined after 3 confederates
What were the 3 variables?
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Task difficulty
What consists of task difficulty as a variable?
- Comparison lines similar to line X
- Rate of conformity increased
- Unsure of the answer = agree with majority (ISI)
What consists of unanimity as a variable?
Definition: All members of a group agreeing on one thing
- 1 confederate disagrees = dissenter
- less conformity; dropped by 1/4
What’s a strength of Asch’s research?
Other studied support results from task difficulty
- Lucas et al
> gave hard and easy math problems
> harder math problems = increased conformity
What’s a strength of Asch’s research in terms of lab use?
Controlled
- internal validity = reliable
- confederates - controlled social situation
- isolate and examine findings
What’s are limitations of Asch’s research?
- Artificial situation (lab) with an artificial task
- too simplistic
- role of self confidence (individual level factors)
- Participants aware of study
- Lack of generalization
> cant apply to real life situation
> white american men (individualist culture) women conform more
What are the 3 types of conformity?
Internalization, identification and compliance
What is internalization?
Genuinely accepts group norms
- private and public change in opinion and behavior (permanent)
- attitude becomes apart of thought process
What is identification?
Values something about the group
- person publicly changes opinion and behavior
- no private change
What is compliance?
‘going along with others’ in public
- no private change in opinion or behavior
- superficial change: stops after group pressure stops
What did Deutsch and Gerard do?
developed 2 process theory based on 2 human needs - need to be liked and need to be right
What are the 2 social influences?
Informative and Normative
What is informative social influence?
Need to be right
- who has better info
- unsure of what behavior is right and wrong
- follow majority behavior = want to be right
- cognitive process
- internalization
- more likely in new or crisis situation
What is normative social influence?
Need to be liked
- typical behavior for a social group
- norms regulate the group behavior
- people don’t like to be foolish
- people like social approval
- emotional process
- temporary change (compliance)
- occurs in stressful situations and with friends
How is Schultz et al relevant?
Aim: impact on NSI on encouraging people
- Hotel experiment: printed messages on rooms = ‘nearly 75% of hotel guests chose to reuse towels’
- significant change (more reused towels)
What are the strengths of NSI?
- Asch’s research
> conformed to gain approval
> conformity fell by 12.5% when written down answers
> avoid normative group pressure - Some conformity = fear of rejection
What are limitations of NSI?
- Doesn’t always predict conformity
> some really care about others liking them
> want to relate to other people - Teevan: students who want to be liked were more likely to conform
- individual differences that cannot be fully explained by one theory
What are limitations of both NSI and ISI?
- Unclear if they work in real life
- Asch found that conformity reduced with dissenter
- Dissenter may reduce power in ISI - provide alternate source of social info
- difficult to separate, both probably operate in real life
What are strengths of ISI?
- Lucas et al support
> participants conform more in difficult situations
> difficult problem = situation between unclear
