Social Influence - Other conformity studies

Question 1

Arthur Jenness - the role of discussion in changing opinion regarding a matter of fact (1932)

Answer 1

Background -

• He originally conducted the study to investigate social facilitation, or the effect of others on performance, but this research is considered to be groundbreaking into investigating informational social influence
• The original focus was to see how group discussion influenced the accuracy of judgement, but the results also showed how majority influence caused individual judgements to converge
• The task was ambiguous, and had no obvious answer or one that was difficult to estimate, and therefore the conformity produced was motivated by informational social influence, where individuals in uncertain situations look to others for guidance on how to behave

Question 2

Jenness’ Jellybeans - Aim and Procedure

Answer 2

Aim -
- To investigate whether individual judgements of jellybeans in a jar was influenced by discussion in groups

Procedure -

1. Participants made individual and private estimates of the number of jellybeans in the jar
2. Participants then discussed their estimates either in large groups or in several smaller groups, discovering in the process that individuals differed widely in their estimates
3. After discussion, group estimates were created
4. Participants then made a second individual, private estimate

Question 3

Jenness’ Jellybeans - Findings and Conclusions

Answer 3

Findings -

• Typicality of opinion was increased - the second estimate tended to converge towards the group estimate
• The average change of opinion was greater among females, showing that women conformed more

Conclusions -

• The judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions, especially in ambiguous or unfamiliar situations
• Discussion is not effective in changing opinion, unless the individuals who enter into the discussion become aware that the opinions of others are different to their own

Question 4

Jenness’ Jellybeans - Evaluation

Answer 4

• Although Jenness did not tell participants what the aims of the study were, the deception here was less severe than other social influence studies, and so it is regarded as more ethically sound
• Laboratory-based experiment that used artificial, unusual situation - lacks mundane realism as it is not an everyday event to be asked how many sweets are in a jar, and so it does not reflect actual behaviour in real-life situations
• The study tells us little to nothing about majority influence in non-ambiguous situations where people conform to obviously wrong answers
• Jenness’ study may involve both NSI and ISI - after making initial individual estimates, participants then created group estimates, therefore their second later individual estimates may have moved towards their group estimates due to a desire for acceptance (NSI) ans well as a desire to be correct (ISI)

Question 5

Asch without the actors - Mori & Arai (2010)

Answer 5

Background -

• Asch’s study became a paradigm study but a major criticism of it was that the demand characteristics; confederates were not trained actors and therefore participants may have realised they were giving false answers and pretended to conform, doing what they thought the researcher expected of them
• Mori and Arai’s solution was the MORI technique (Manipulation of Overlapping Rivalrous Images by polarising filters)
• Participants wore filter glasses, allowing them to see the same stimuli but see different things - one participant in each group wore different glasses, thus perceiving a different comparison line
• This study also used females as well as males, different to Asch’s

Question 6

Aim and Procedure of Mori and Arai’s study

Answer 6

Aim -
- To reproduce the Asch experiment, but without the need for confederates

Procedure -

1. 104 Japanese undergraduates were put i same-sex groups of 4 and sat around a table, with a random seat order; they had to say aloud which of the three comparison lines matched the stimulus line, using the same ones in Asch’s study
2. Participants wore sunglasses, supposedly to prevent glare, with the 3rd participant in each group wearing different glasses, which made them see a shorter or longer comparison line to the other three participants on 12 of the 18 ‘critical trials’; the other 6 trials were neutral, with all participants seeing the same thing
3. Participants answered a questionnaire containing 22 questions taken from the interview Asch used with his participants, and among the questions were ones asking whether participants were suspicious about the images seen, whether they noticed the others answering differently, whether they were sure of their answers or whether they were influenced by the others answers if not confident of their own judgements

Question 7

Findings and conclusions - Mori and Arai

Answer 7

Findings -

1. The 78 majority participants who saw the correct sized comparison lines answered incorrectly 8.2% of the time (77 out of 936 tasks) with no significant gender differences
2. The 26 minority participants who saw different sized comparison lines answered incorrectly 19.6% of the time (61 out of 312) - however, female minority participants answered incorrectly 28.6% of the tme, whilst for males it was only 5% of the time
3. With females, the results, were similar to Asch’s, with the minority conforming to wrong answers on the 12 critical trials an average of 4.41 times (3.44 times in Asch’s study), but male conformity was not noticeable, which is notable considering all of Asch’s participants were male

Conclusions -

• Minority participants noticed their judgements were different, but none reported suspicions concerning the honesty of majority participants’ answers, therefore suggesting demand characteristics did not occur
• Unlike Asch’s findings, the frequency of conformity of minority participants were similar regardless of whether the majority answered unanimously or not, suggesting the number of people in a majority group has little effect on conformity levels
• As women conformed more than men, it suggests cultural or generational differences have occurred since Asch’s study
• As no majority participants laughed at the performance of minority participants, conformity cannot have occurred due to fear of ridicule

Question 8

Evaluation of Mori and Arai

Answer 8

• This new procedure could provide an effective means of examining conformity, especially in natural settings and in social situations where the use of confederates would not be practical, such as with children
• The new procedure is still unethical, as participants were deceived
• Conformity may have occurred due to both normative social influence and informative social influence
• Both Asch and Mori & Arai’s studies lack mundane realism as comparing line sizes isn’t something that is often done in real life
• Mori and Arai’s study may be more externally valid, as participants knew each other - real-life conformity tends to occur among acquainted people, like family members rather than in Asch-type situations where decisions are made among strangers
• Contradicted Asch, suggests a gender element to conformity, more modern and suggests a culture element