Social: Conformity Flashcards
What is Normative social influence?
to be liked - when you want to fit into a group and be socially accepted (e.g. Everyone in the same friend group having the same school shoes)
What is informational social influence?
to be right - when you are unsure of what to do you follow the group and conform (e.g. Woolworth’s fire, when 10 people died because they felt like they had to pay before leaving.
What is a study supporting informational social influence?
autokinetic effect - will people conform to a group on an ambiguous
P: ptps were asked how far the dot of light had moved twice, alone and in a group. Half the group were asked alone, then in a group, VV.
- found that when asked alone first the ptp would change their answer the 2nd time to fit in with the group. However, when asked in a group first they would stick to the groups answers when asked alone later
—> shows informational social influence as when unsure of what to do, ptps will go along with the group. It also shows internalisation
What was Asch’s study to support normative social influence and compliance?
whether people conform even if answer is wrong (lab exp)
- 123 American male ptps, each one in a group with confederates. They got given a line and had to match it with one of three lines on the board. There was clearly an obvious right answer. They had to say the answer out loud in front of the group. They were always seated either last or second to last and all the other confederates were told to say the wrong answer (the genuine ptp didn’t know thyey were confederates.
IV: the target line changed
DV: give the wrong answer (conform) or right answer
What were Asch’s findings for the study?
ptps conformed to the unanimous incorrect answer on 32% of the critical trials. 74% of pips conformed at least once. 26% never. When asked, participants admitted they didn’t want to be laughed at
- all ptps were male college students so limited sample
- time and place (USA I950)
- low ecological validity
How is group size a variable affecting conformity?
Research indicates that as group size increases, conformity increases to a point, then there are no further increases in conformity, asch (1956) shows 1 ptp and 1 confederate = low/no conformity.
1 ptp and 2 confederates = 13% conformity. 1 ptp and 3 confederates = 32%. Adding any more than 3 confederates had no more increases in conformity.
How does unanimity affect conformity?
The original asch study had unanimity where all confederates gave the wrong answer and a third of the ptps would conform - conformity rates decline when the majority influence is not unanimous
Therefore conformity drops is an individual (rebel) goes against the majority. This is called a social supporter or group dissenter and conformity drops to 5.5%
How does task difficulty affect conformity?
Greater conformity rates as task difficulty increases. People look to others for guidance and this leads to informational social influence occurring as well.
- when Asch increases the difficulty of the task, conformity increased
What is compliance as a type of conformity?
they change their behaviour, but not their mind, they know what they are doing is wrong (Asch)
What is identification as a type of conformity?
change your behaviour and mind for a time, but it can be changed back (Zimbardo)
What is internalisation as a type of conformity?
they change their behaviour and mind and believe what they are doing is right (Sherif)
What was Zimbardo’s 1973 Stanford prison stimulation?
- to investigate how readily people would conform to new social roles by observing how quickly people would adopt the roles or guard and prisoner in stimulated prison life.
- Procedure: healthy male volunteers were paid $15/day to take part in a 2 week simulation. Randomly allocated to prisoners or guards. 3 guards each shift who wore uniform, glasses and had a wooden baton. No physical aggression was permitted.
IV: The role (prisoner or guard). DV: if they conformed or not
What did Zimbardo find?
- the guards harassed and humiliated the prisoners and conformed to their perceived roles with such zeal that the study had to be dis continued after 6 days. Prisoners rebelled after 2 days. Prisoners became depressed and anxious. One prisoner had to be released after 1 day. 2 more were released on the 4th day. By day 6, prisoners were submissive to the guards.
What were the conclusions of Zimbardos study?
It was the result of normative social influence rather than dispositional (personality) factors
People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if they are strongly stereotyped, like prison guards.
Roles the people play really shape their attitude and behaviour. If it took only 6 days to alter behaviour in the study, then the roles we play in real life will have even more far reaching affects.
What’s some evaluation of Zimbardos study?
- many ethical criticisms. E.g. Lack of fully informed consent as well as the humiliation and stress experienced by prisoner roles (E.g. Prisoners did not know that they would get arrested from their homes.- although Zimbardo thought it was needed)
- ptps may have suffered pychological harm, yet everyone seemed fine in the follow up interviews.
- Some of the volunteers might’ve behaved in ways they thought the researchers wanted (demand characteristics)
- zimbardo was wrong to act as both prison-super-intendant and chief researcher as produced a conflict of roles whereby he lost sight of the harm being done to ptps
