Types of conformity

• Compliance

  This is the most shallow level of conformity. It involves us publicly changing our behaviour to that of the majority but privately maintaining our own views. An example of this would be pretending to support a different football team to fit in with new friends. Asch's (1951) studies into conformity had a group of confederates give a wrong answer to an easy task. They found that many genuine participants conformed to give the same answer even though they knew it was wrong. This is an example of compliance as the participant's responses did not match their views.
• Internalisation

  This is the deepest kind of conformity. It involves going along with what the surrounding group are doing but being happy to do so as the behaviours/ actions are agreed with. In this case private attitudes match pubic behaviours. An example of this would be conforming to the behaviours shown by a religious group as you had been converted to their beliefs.
• Identification

  Conform publicly, privately but temporary. When we step away from the role we stop showing these behaviours. An example of this would be a prison guard. When at work a prison guard is required to be authoritative, demanding and firm. Such traits are not necessarily shown in their home life. Zimbardo's research involved participants either taking on role of prisoner/guard. Those who played the role of guard were cruel to the prisoners as they were conforming to the role they had been given. When the experiment stopped so did the cruelty.