Social influence Flashcards
Define conformity
The tendency for a person to change their behaviour and/or beliefs in response to pressure from other people in a group
What are the 3 types of conformity
Compliance, identification, internalisation
What is compliance
Individuals publicly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it - temporary need to be accepted
What is identification
Individuals adopt the behaviour of the group because we value the group and group membership - does not necessarily agree
What is internalisation
Individuals take on the expressed view publicly and privately as they accept it as correct - permanent change
What was the aim of Asch’s study into conformity
To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform
What was the procedure of Asch’s study into conformity
123 American student volunteers were told they were taking part in a task of visual perception. 1 pt was placed around a table of 7 confederates, and placed 2nd to last. Task was to state what comparison line met stimulus line. 12 critical trials where confederates gave the same incorrect answers
What were the finding of Asch’s study into conformity
Error rate of control group was 3/720 showing how obvious answers were. On 12 critical trials there was 32% conformity rate to wrong answers. 75% conformed to at least one wrong answer. 5% conformed to every trial possible
What is the conclusion from Asch’s study into conformity
Found that majority does have significant impact on minority, even in obvious situations. Seems NSI is critical in persuading people
What were the variations of Asch’s study
Difficulty of the task, size of the majority, unanimity
Describe the difficulty of the task variable as one of Asch’s variations
Asch made difference between the line lengths smaller. This made them appear closer together and more ambiguous. This task was harder than the original task
What happens to conformity when difficulty of the task increases/decreases and why
The harder task = increase conformity
The easier task = decrease conformity
largely because of informational social influence, as individuals look to another for guidance when undertaking an ambiguous task
Describe the size of the majority variable as one of Asch’s variations
Group size variations from 1-15 confederates. 1 confederate = 3% conformity rate. 2 = 12.8%, 3 = 32% - same as original (6-8 confederates)
What happens to conformity when size of the majority increases/decreases and why
Increase = conformity increased up until 3 confederates
Decrease = conformity decreased
Conformity reaches its highest level with 3 confederates, once a majority pressure is created
Describe the unanimity variable as one of Asch’s variations
In the original study, participants all gave the same wrong answer. In one variation, a participant was asked to give the correct answer throughout which decreased conformity to 5%. In another, one confederate gave a different incorrect majority where conformity dropped to 9%
