Variables affecting conformity Flashcards
What is a situational variable?
feature of an environment that affects the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
What happens to conformity rate with size of group?
size of group increases, conformity rate increases
What did Asch find for size of group?
conformity was low when his paradigm was repeated with one naive participant and two stooges (13% to 32% with three confederates)
When have conformity rates been found to decline?
when the majority influence is not unanimous
What did Asch find with unanimity?
if there was one confederate who went against the other confederates, conformity dropped from 32% TO 5%
When are greater conformity rates found?
when task difficulty increases because the right answer becomes less obvious
What did Asch find with task difficulty?
he increased task difficulty by making the comparison lines similar to each other - people conformed more
What are individual variables?
personal characteristics that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
What does gender suggest?
that woman are more readily to conform due to socialisation
What did Eagly et al suggest?
women focus more on the quality of relationships so they may conform as an attempt to build interpersonal relationships
What did research suggests about moods?
people conform more when they are happy
What did Tong et al find?
participants were more likely to conform to an incorrect maths answer when in a good mood than a negative mood
People from different cultures?
conform more due to some cultures being uniform in their structure
