Types Of Conformity Flashcards
Asch’s baseline procedure
- 123 American men were tested and each participant saw two large white cards. One had one line and the other had 3 lines.
- One of the 3 lines was clearly the same length as the one on the other card.
- On each trial the participants had to say out loud which of the comparison lines was the same length as the standard line.
- Only one was a genuine participant and the others were confederates who all gave the same incorrect answers each time
-On average the genuine participants agreed with confederates 36.8% of the time
Group size investigated by Asch
- Wanted to know whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group
- Varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15
- Found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate
- Conformity increased with group size but only up to a point
- With 3 confederates conformity to the wrong answer rode to 31.8% but the presence of more confederates made little difference
Unanimity investigated by Asch
- Introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates
- In one variation of the study the person gave the correct answer and in another variation he gave a wrong one
- The genuine participant conformed less in the presence of a dissenter
- Rate decreed to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
- Suggesting influence of the majority depends to a large extent on it being unanimous
Task difficulty investigated by Asch
- Increased difficulty of the line judging task by making stimulus line and comparison lines more similar
- Found that conformity increased
- Could be due to situation being more ambiguous and unclear to participant right answer is
- Natural to look at other people for guidance and to assume they’re right
Evaluation of Asch’s baseline procedure
Limited application
- Were all American men
- Us is a indiviualist culture (where people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group)
- Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures have found that conformity rates are higher
- Study tells us little about conformity in women and people from some cultures
Evaluation of Asch’s baseline procedure
Artificial situation and task
- Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone with what was expected (demand characteristics)
- Task if identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason to not conform
- Findings do not generalise to real world situations especially those where consequences of conformity might be important
Evaluation of task difficulty investigation
- Todd Lucas asked participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems
- Participants were given answers from 3 other students (not actually real)
- Participants confirmed more often (agreed with wrong answers) when the problems were harder
Internalisation
- Occurs when a person genuinely accepts group norms - this results in a private as well as a public change of opinion/behaviour
- Change is usually permanent because attitudes have been internalised
- This change in opinions/behaviour persists even in the absence of other group members
Identification
- Sometimes we conform to the opinions/behaviour of a group because there is something about that group that we value
- May mean we publicly change our opinions/behaviour to be accepted even if we don’t privately agree with everything
Compliance
- Going along with others in public but privately not changing personal opinions/behaviour
- Results in only a superficial change
Normative social influence
What is ‘normal’ or typical behaviour for a social group
Norms regulate the behaviour of groups and individuals so it’s not surprising that we pay attention to them
Leads to temporary change
Informational social influence
Follow behaviour of the group because we want to be right
Cognitive process - to do with what you think
Leads to permanent change in opinions/behaviour (internalisation)
Research for NSI
Asch interviewed his participants
Some said they confirmed because they felt self conscious giving the correct answer - afraid of disapproval
When participants wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% - no normative group pressure
Research for ISI
Todd Lucas
Lucas found participants conformed more often to incorrect answers they were given when maths problems were difficult
Participants did not want to be wrong so they relied on the answers given
NSI limitation
Some people are called nAffiliators - string need for affiliation
There are individual differences in conformity that cannot be fully explained by one general theory of situational pressures
NSI or ISI
Unclear whether it is ISI or NSI in situations - hard to separate
Asch found that conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant
Dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (provide social support) or reduce power of ISI (provide alternative source of social information)
Stanford prison experiment - Zimbardo’s procedure
- Set up mock prison in the basement of the psych department
- Selected 21 male students who tested as ‘emotionally stable’
- Students randomly assigned role of either prisoner/guard
- Encouraged to conform to social roles through what they wore and their behaviour
Stanford prison experiment - uniforms
- Prisoners wore a loose smock, cap, identified by number
- Guards wore their own uniforms reflecting status of role
- Created a loss of personal identity -> more likely to conform to perceived social roles
Stanford prison experiment - instructions about behaviour
Prisoners - rather than leaving study early, could apply for paroles
Guards - reminded they had complete power over prisoners
Stanford prison experiment findings
- 1 prisoner released signs of psychological disturbances
- 1 prisoner went on hunger strike
- guard - behaviour became increasingly brutal and aggressive
- Zimbardo ended the study after 6 days - intended 14 days
Stanford prison experiment - Zimbardos conclusion
Social roles have a strong influence on individuals behaviour
Guards became brutal
Prisoners became submissive
Roles were easily taken on by all ps
Strengths of Stanford prison experiment
Control over key variables
Emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles
Increased internal validity and also external validity (easier to replicate with different researchers)
Limitation of Stanford prison experiment
Lack of realism
Participants performance based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave
Tells us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons
Limitation Stanford prison experiment (2nd)
Exaggerates power of social roles
Only 1/3 of guards actually behaved in brutal manner
Suggests that Zimbardo overstated his view that participants were conforming to social roles and minimised the influence of dispositions, factors e.g. personality
