conformity: types and explanations ao3 Flashcards
Strength - research support for normative social influence
P: Asch’s (1951) study into conformity provides research support for normative social influence.
E: When asked to judge the lengths of lines and match them to a standard line, he found that many of the participants went along with the obviously wrong answers of the other group members.
E: When asked bv Asch in post-experimental interviews why they did this, participants said that they changed their answers to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group, which clearly shows that compliance had occurred as the participants conformed in order to fit in. Further to this, Asch demonstrated in a later variation (1955) that when the pressure to publicly conform is removed by asking participants to write down their answers on a piece of paper, rather than say them aloud the conformity rates fell to 12.5% as the fear of rejection became far less.
L: This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire not to be rejected by the group for disagreeing with them (ie. NS1).
Strength - research support for informational social influence
P: Research support for informational social influence was provided by Lucas et al 2006.
E: students were asked to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult.
E: Greater conformity to incorrect answers was found the questions were difficult rather than easy. This is because when problems were easy participants “knew their own mind”, but when the problems were hard the situation became ambiguous. The ppts didn’t want to be wrong, so relied on answers they were given.
L: this shows that informational social influence is a valid explanation of conformity because the results are what ISI would predict
Counterpoint to Lucas et al
P: However, it is often unclear whether it is NSI or ISI at work in research studies (or in real life).
EE: For example, Asch (1955) found that conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant present. They dissenter may reduce the power of NSI by providing social support, or they may reduce the power of ISI because they provide an alternative source of information. Both interpretations are possible.
L: Therefore, it is hard to separate ISI and NSI and both processes probably operate together in most real-world conformity situations.
