Conformity & Obedience Flashcards
What does conformity mean
The tendency to change our perceptions, opinions or behaviour in ways that are consistent with group norms
Discuss Asch (1951, 1956) findings about majority influence
Over 35% of people who had heard the others in their group give the wrong answer also gave the wrong answer.
What is informational influence
The change of beliefs that occurs when a person privately accepts the position of others
What is normative influence
A superficial change in overt behaviour, without a corresponding change of opinion, produced by real or imagined group pressure “they are wrong, but I don’t dare or want to disagree with them”.
What are the two types of major influences on conformity
Informational influence and normative influence.
Why is informational influence more powerful
Because opinions are likely to remain the same when the other people are absent
Summarise the majority influence
An incorrect majority can influence a minority as long as they are unanimous
What were the implications of Asch
You wouldn’t disagree with other nurses if they all said the same thing. However if you have one nurse agreeing with you you would. When the other nurses disagree amongst each other they would.
Describe the minority influence
Behavioural style - consistency between different people, within a person.
Describe the findings of Moscovici’s minority influence
More incorrect answers with inconsistent minority
Name four factors that influence minority influence
Personal benefit. Uncertainty. Likeability. Snowball effect
Discuss conformity and culture
Conformity rates are higher in collective cultures than in individualistic cultures
Describe obedience
Behaviour change produced by the commands of authority
Name and discuss three situational factors to do with obedience related to the Milgram (1974) study
Proximity of the victim - hearing meant less likely to give shocks than seeing. Authority of the experimenter - Present lead to more shocks given than on the telephone or no experiment. Peer pressure - more shocks with obeying helper, less than no helper in disobeying helper.
Discuss situational influence and obedience
Depending on the situation, obedience varied from 10%-92%. Fundamental attribution error
