REASONS FOR CONFORMITY

• What is normative social influence?


  Must believe that we are under surveillance by the rest of the group, as we don't want to be rejected or ridiculed - based on our desire to fit in.

  • form of compliance and explains why it occurs
  • e.g. dancing in your kitchen compared to at a party.
• What is informative social influence?


  Occurs in unfamiliar situations, when you are unclear how to behave. when we are uncertain, we look to others for the right answer.

  • private and public internalisation
  • trust others that they are right, as we cannot check the facts because we are unsure.
  • e.g. weddings at different cultures.
• Research to support NSI:

  • Perkins - found that adolescents who were told that most of their peers did not smoke were less likely to smoke themselves.
• Research to support NSI:

  • Asch - if participants gave the correct answer they risked being ridiculed by the group
  • participants said they didn't want to be the odd one out.
• Research to support ISI:

  • Fein - showed participants a film of a US presidential debate and what they were led to believe was the reaction of other group members towards the points the candidates made. when each ppt was asked about their opinion they shifted in the direction of the majority of other group members.
  • shows we're shaped by others as its believed they have more information than us.
• Asch's aim:

  To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to the majority who gave the wrong answers.
• Procedure:

  123 male American undergraduates.

  tested in a group of confederates - asked to state which line whether the standard line same as other 3 lines.

  confederates told to give 12/18 incorrect answers

  true ppt was last or 2nd last to answer.
• Findings:

  control group had an error rate of 0.04 - 3/720

  on the trial 32% conformed to wrong answers

  73% conformed to at least once

  5% conformed to all 12 wrong answers
• Conclusion:

  they conformed to gain acceptance and avoid rejection from the group.

  even with simple tasks, the level of conformity within a group is huge.
• Variations of Asch's study:

  group size

  task difficulty

  unanimity
• Group size:

  with a majority of 3 conformity started to rise - but adding more to the group made little difference

  need to conform regardless of the group size
• Task difficulty:

  he found conformity increased

  how sure we are of ourselves- knowledge decreases.
• Unanimity:

  with another non-conformist, conformity went down to 25%.

  gives them more confidence.
• Evaluation: the time the study was carried out

  McCarthyism - Cold War - times when people didn't want to be thought of as a spy

  Perrin and Spencer (1980) - ppts admitted that they felt they would've been ridiculed if they'd conformed

  Asch's ppt felt they would've felt ridiculed if they hadn't conformed

  depends on the time in history
• Evaluation: task and situation have little resemblance to real life

  atrivial tasks, and we rarely have to make decisions amongst total strangers - conformity takes place between people who knowing one another lacks ecological validity

  no consequences between conforming or not
• Evaluation: conformity is not a stable/fixed behaviour

  conformity differs amongst cultures - collectivists and individualists

  Asch's findings may only be relevant to this study - conformity levels may not show stale human behaviour

  Smith et al - found that the average conformity levels were 25% in individualists and 37% in collectivists
• Evaluation: ethical issues with research

  ppts were not protected by psychological stress

  debrief and consent

  increase level of autonomic arousal
• Evaluation: both NSI and ISI are supported by lab research

  supports NSI because he demonstrated that the ppts wanted to fit into the group

  supports ISI as the ppts were looking to the confederates/ other ppts for more information - information gathering.
• Evaluation: limited application

  All ppts were American men - gender bias