Section 1 : Social Influence - Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity
a change in a persons behaviour or opinion due to real or imagined pressure from others
Asch - 1951
Aim
Assess extent to which people conform to the opinion of others in unambiguous situations
tested the effects of Normative Social Influence
Procedure
lab experiment, independent groups
123 American men
one standard line and three comparison lines
lines were obviously different lengths - unambiguous
groups of 6-8
one naive participant, rest confederates
seated last or second last
all gave same incorrect answer
18 - 12 of these were critical trials
What happened in the critical trials
Results of Critical Trials
The confederates all gave the same wrong answer
-Naive Participants conformed to the majority giving the wrong answer 37% of the time.
-75% conformed at least once
-25% never conformed
-Participants didn’t really believe their answer but didn’t want look different
Control Group?
Task?
Results?
Yes
Judged the line lengths in isolation
Participants gave the wrong answer 0.7% of the time
Asch investigated 3 situational factors:
Group size
unanimity
task difficulty
variable - group size
varied number of confederates 1-15
rela between group size and level of conformity was curvilinear
2 confeds conformity = 14%
3 confeds conformity = 32%
above 3, made little difference
conclude -small majorities are easier to resist than large ones, people are sensitive to opinions of others as one confed was enough to sway opinions
variable - unanimity
dissenting confederate, always disagreed with majority
fellow dissenter meant unanimity in the group was broken. The rates of conformity fell to 5.5%
easier for participants to resist the pressure to conform
dissenter enables naive participant to behave more independantly
variable - task difficulty
increased TD, made stimulus line more similar to comparison line
conformity increased
situation is more ambiguous, less confident, more likely to look for guidance, conform
informational social influence affects us more as TD increases
weakness Asch
Situation and task - artificial
Participants know they are taking part in study, lab setting
Demand characteristics
Findings do not generalise to real world situations
lacks ecological validity- not a natural situation less likely to conform if real life consequence
weakness Asch
Limited Application/ Generalizability
All american men
Neto 1995 - women are more conformist about social relationships + being accepted
weakness Asch
Generalizability
US - individualist culture, CHINA - collectivist culture, conformity rates are higher Bond and Smith 1996
Individualistic culture - prioritise standing out
Collectivist culture - prioritise group loyalty
Strength Asch
Research Support
Support from other studies
Todd Lucas et al, easy and hard maths problems, participants conformed more when problems were harder
Conclusion was correct task difficulty affects conformity
(however Lucas et all found individual confidence influences conformity, interacts with situational variables (task difficulty)
Asch did not look at individual factors
Weakness Asch
Child of the times 1951
Perrin and Spencer 1981
Retrialled experiment - only one engineering student conformed out of 400
Weakness Asch
Ethical Issues
Naive participants were deceived
Unaware of confederates
Embarrassed in debrief
Lack trust in psychologists
Strength Asch
Lab setting
-There was good control of variables - minimises the effects of extraneous variables.
-Can easily repeat the study
What are the 3 types of conformity
Compliance
Internalisation
Identification
What is compliance
-publicly but not privately going along with the majority influence to gain approval/avoid ridicule
-Weak/temporary and only shown in presence of a group
-stops when group pressure is removed
What is internalisation
-true conformity
-public and private acceptance of majority influence, through adoption of the majority group’s belief system
-stronger, permanent form of conformity, as it maintained outside of the groups presence
What is identification
- public and private acceptance of majority influence in order to gain group acceptance
- stronger form of conformity but still temporary, don’t always agree with the group
two process theory
Deutsch and Gerard
two main reasons people conform
based on 2 basic human needs
need to be right: ISI
need to be liked: NSI
what is information social influence (ISI)
a cognitive process, we conform to the majority because we want to be right
leads to internalisation
why does information social influence happen
- Uncertain
- agree with the majority and believe that is right
- want to be right
- cognitive process
- public and private agreement
when does ISI happen
situations that are new to a person
some ambiguity
in crisis situations
one person in the group is regarded as being more of an expert
what is NSI (normative social influence)
- NSI is an emotional process
- we conform ot majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and be liked.
- the person may publicly change their behaviour/view but will privately disagree
leads to compliance
why does NSI happen
- agree with the opinion of majority
- need for acceptance
- gain social approval/be liked
- emotional process
- public and private views differ -> compliance
when does NSI happen
-situations with strangers
-occur with people you know
-pronounced in stressful situations
supporting research NSI
Asch
many participants conformed, afraid of disapproval
when wrote down answer, no normative group pressure, conformity fell to 12.5%
some conformity due to normative pressure, not be rejected by group
strength ISI
research support
Lucas et al
participants conformed more to maths problems when task diffuculty was higher
ambiguous situation, looked to others
supports ISI as an explanation for conformity, ISI predicts results
BUT
unclear if NSI or ISI is acting, eg Asch, dissenter may affect ISI (provide alternative source of social info) or NSI (provide social support)
hard to separate ISI and NSI, as they operate together in real life situations of conformity
SUGGESTS
distinction between ISI and NSI is not useful, Lucas findings could be due to NSI or ISI
BUT Asch shows both are reasons for conformity
unanimity - reason for NSI
unanimity - ISI, everyone knows
weakness NSI
individual differences
does not always predict conformity
some people are concearned about being liked, nAffiliators, strong need to relate to others, Teevan - nAffiliators are more likely to conform
shows NSI underlies in some people more than others, indiviudal differences can’t fully explain conformity
What does situational factors mean
Refers to the social situation someone is in
What does dispositional factors mean
Refers to the persons internal characteristics
What dispositional factors could’ve affected conformity rates in Asch’s research
- Confidence
- Gender
Did confidence affect conformity rates, why?
Yes, if people felt more confident in their judgements, they were more able to resist group pressure
What studies support that confidence decreases conformity
Wiestenthal (1976) - if people felt competent in a task, they were less likely to conform
Perrin and Spencer - Replicated Asch’s study, Participants were engineering students.Conformity levels were lower, could’ve been to the fact that engineering students have more confidence in their skills in making accurate observations.
What was the dominant view about gender and conformity
The dominant view was that women are more likely to conform than males.
What study changed the dominant view about gender and conformity
Eagly and Carli (1981)
What was Eagly and carli
They did a meta-analysis of conformity research. They analysed a number of data from studies x they found some differences in sex for conformity but they were inconsistent.
What did Eagly argue (1987)
Men and womens different socials roles explain differences in conformity. Women are more concerned with group harmony, so are more likely to agree with others.
