social influence -> conformity: types and explanations Flashcards
What is social influence?
The process by which our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by other people
What is conformity?
A type of social influence defined as a change in belief or behaviour in response to real or imagined social pressure. It is also known as majority influence
What are the three types of conformity?
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
Who suggested there are three ways in which people conform to the opinion of a majority?
Herbert Kelman (1958)
What is compliance?
- The shallowest level of conformity
- The person conforms publicly but continues to privately disagree
What are the features of conformity?
- This results in only a superficial change
- A particular behaviour or opinion stops as soon as group pressure stops
What is an example of compliance?
A person might laugh at the joke that others are laughing at while privately not finding it funny
What is indentification?
- Conformity to the opinions/behaviour of a group because there is something about the group we value
What are the features of identification?
- We identify with the group as we want to be part of it
- We may publicly change our opinions/behaviour to achieve this goal, even if we don’t privately agree with everything the group stands for
What is an example of indentification?
A person might support a new football team every time they move to a new town
What is internalisation?
When someone genuinely accepts the group norms
What are the features of internalisation?
- This results in a private and public change of opinion/behaviour
- This change is likely to be permanent because attitudes have been internalised
- This change in opinion/behaviour persists even in the absence of other group members
What is an example of internalisation?
A person may become a vegetarian after sharing a flat with a group of vegetarians at university
What is identity fusion?
In which individuals experience a deep sense of oneness with the group and the boundaries between the group and the individual merge
Who proposed the two-process theory to explain conformity?
Deutsch and Gerard (1955) -> TWO-PROCESS MODEL
What are the two explanations for conformity?
- Normative Social Influence
- Informative Social Influence
What is normative social influence?
When a person conforms to be accepted and to feel that they belong to a group
- Here a person conforms because it is socially rewarding, or to avoid social rejection; to ‘fit in’
What kind of process is normative social influence?
NSI is an emotional rather than cognitive process
What types of conformity is NSI usually associated with?
Usually associated with compliance and identification
How is NSI associated with compliance and identification?
With compliance, people change their public behaviour but not their private beliefs while with identification people change their public behaviour and their private beliefs, but only in the presence of the group
What kind of change in opinion/behaviour does NSI lead to?
- It leads to a superficial, temporary change in opinions/behaviour
- This explanation of social influence leads to a short-term type of conformity which is motivated by the desire to fit in with the majority
What situations is NSI likely to occur in?
-> when with strangers and feel worried about being rejected
-> when with people you know and want social approval
-> when stressed and needing social support
What is informative social influence?
Occurs when we are uncertain about what beliefs or behaviours are correct - where a person conforms because they have a desire to be right and look to others who they believe may have more information.
What kind of process is ISI?
ISI is a cognitive process because it is to do with what you think
What kind of change does ISI lead to?
It leads to a permanent change in opinion/behaviour (internalisation) as the person is adopting a new belief system
When is ISI likely to occur?
-> the situation is new to someone (you don’t know what’s right)
-> situations where there is ambiguity (it’s not clear what is right)
-> other people are viewed as experts
Evaluation: Research support of NSI -> strength
- Goldstein, Cialdini et.al (1999)
- Hotel guests were shown one of two different messages about reusing towels
-> 1. Help save the environment
-> 2. Join your fellow guests in helping to save the environment - almost 75% of guests who are asked to participate in our new resource savings program help by reusing their towels.
- Message 1 achieved 38% positive behaviour
- Message 2 achieved 48% positive behaviour
- Message 2 involved NSI (guests wanting to be like other guests) and had a clear effect on changing behaviour
Evaluation: Research support for ISI -> strength
- In a study by Jenness (1932), students were asked to guess the number of beans in a jar
- After being given the opportunity to discuss their estimates in groups they were asked to give their individual estimates again.
- Nearly all pps changed their original estimate to be closer to the group estimate
- Conclusion – pps changed their answers because they believed the group estimate was more likely to be right than their own individual estimate = ISI
