Variables affecting conformity

Question 1

What variables affect conformity?

Answer 1

1) Group size
2) Difficulty of the task
3) Status of majority group
4) Social support

Question 2

How does group size affect conformity levels? - relating to Asches experiment

Answer 2

• Conformity tends to increase as the size of the group increases.
• However, there is little change in conformity once the group size reaches 4-5. With one other person (i.e. confederate) in the group conformity was 3%, with two others it increased to 13% and with three or more it was 32%.
• Because conformity does not seem to increase in groups larger than four, this is considered the optimal group size.

Question 3

How does difficulty of the task affect conformity? - relating to Ashes experiment

Answer 3

• When the (comparison) lines (e.g. A, B, C) were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased.
• When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity.

Question 4

How does status of majority group affect conformity? - relating to Ashes experiment

Answer 4

• If someone is of high status (e.g. your boss) or has a lot of knowledge (e.g. your teacher), they might be more influential, and so people will conform to their opinions more (e.g. informational influence).
• The higher the status of the group the higher the level of conformity.

Question 5

How does social support affect conformity? - relating to Ashes experiment

Answer 5

• When one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group answer was not unanimous, conformity dropped.
• Asch (1951) found that even the presence of just one confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity as much as 80%.
• This suggests that individuals conform because they are concerned about what other people think of them (i.e. normative influence).