E3: Conformity Flashcards
What is social influence and what are the three kinds?
how we influence other people and how we are influenced; conformity, compliance, and obedience
What is conformity?
changing one’s behavior without direct communication to conform with what others around us our doing
What are the two main studies referenced when talking about conformity?
The Sherif Study and the Asch Study
Describe the Sherif study and what it taught us about conformity
Involved an illusion where a light looked as if it were moving; participants had differing views about the distance the light had moved but the group came to a consensus that people genuinely accepted as the truth (private acceptance)
-showed us that norms are established quickly
Describe the Asch study and what it taught us about conformity
confederates gave clearly wrong answers to a simple judgement task (line lengths) but participants then agreed with the obvious wrong answer (more so public conformity)
-told us that people will in fact conform even against their own judgement
What are the two reasons that we conform?
Informational social influence and normative social influence
What is informational social influence?
we conform because we believe that other’s interpretation of an ambiguous scenario is accurate and will help us choose an appropriate course of action
What is the driving force behind informational social influence?
accuracy; we want to be accurate
What does informational social influence lead to?
private acceptance: people conform to the behavior of others because they truly believe that they’re right
What study is associated with social informational influence?
the sherif study
what factors determine the extent to which we are effected by informational social influence?
-importance of task: the more important the task, the more we follow this influence
-ambiguity: the more ambiguous a scenario is, the more we rely on others
-crisis: in emergencies, we follow the influence more
-expertise: when we perceive someone to be an expert on something, we rely on them more
What is normative social influence?
People conform to the group’s social norms because they want to fit in and be liked; also disagreeing can be uncomfortable/stressful
What is the driving force behind normative social influence?
Self Esteem; it is important to us that other people like us
What does normative social influence lead to?
public conformity: not conforming to the group because we think they have more knowledge and genuinely believe them to be correct, but rather conform just to match the group
What study is associated with normative social influence?
The Asch study
What factors determine the extent to which we are affected by normative social influence?
-importance of the group: how much do we care about their opinions of us?
-idiosyncracy credits
-group size: 3-4 people is the perfect conditions for conformity, any more and conformity decreases
-ally: just one other person not conforming helps other people to think for themselves too
-this is seen more in collectivistic cultures
What are some additional factors that impact both informational social influence and normative social influence?
-gender: women are more likely to conform in face to face situations but overall not a ton of difference
-individual differences may account for whether or not someone is influenced
What are the two different norms that play into conformity?
injunctive norms and descriptive norms
injunctive norm
what we think other people approve or disapprove of; motivates our behavior with rewards/punishment of social rejection or social acceptance
how do injunctive norms fit into the two different influences of conformity?
injunctive norms fit into normative social influence because we want to fit into the group by performing action we think others will approve of
descriptive norm
perception of the way that people actually behave in a given situation regardless of approval or disapproval; motivates people by informing them about what is effective and adaptive behavior
how do descriptive norms fit into the different influences of conformity?
descriptive norms fit into informational social influence as we behave in the way that we think other people are behaving in even if we know it would technically be morally disapprove of
