types of conformity

• normative social influence (NSI)


  the desire to be liked - when we conform to fit in with the group because we dont want to appear foolish or to be left out
• informational social influence (ISI)


  the desire to be right - when we conform because we are unsure of the situation so we look to others who we belive may have more information than us
• jenness - sweets jar 


  • a jar of sweets was passed round the room for people to look at individually and make an estimate for how many were in the jar
  • people wrote down their first private guess
  • then group discussion and group guess took place
  • then Ps took a second private guess
  • after the second private guess the guesses became more similar to the group guess
• conformity 


  a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group. the change is in response to real or imagined group pressure
• compliance 


  going along with others in public but not changing opinions / behaviour in private. only a superficial change, behaviour stops once peer pressure from group goes
• identification


  conforming to opinions / behaviour of a group as there is something about them that we value. identify with them and want to be part of it so changing opinions / behaviour as long as we are with the group
• internalisation


  a person genuinely accepting group norms, resulting in a private and public change in opinion and behaviour, likely to be permanent because the attitudes have been internalised
• sherif - conformity


  • aimed to demonstrate people conform to group norms when put into an ambiguous situation
  • lab experiment -autokinetic effect
  • when tested individually their estimates of how far light moved varied a lot, but when in groups of 3 (2 similar, 1 different guess) the group converged to a common estimate (1 different guess conformed)
  • shows people will always conform and when in an ambiguous situation people will look to others to guidance and conform when lacking information
• asch lines study


  • 50 male american students
  • line judgement task, one P sat with 6 confederates and always sat 2nd to last
  • had to say which option was most like the other line shown
  • correct answer was always obvious, confederates would say the wrong answer
  • Ps conformed 36.8% of the time, 75% conformed on at least one trial, 25% never conformed
  • Ps interviewed after and most said they agreed to fit in / avoid ridicule, confirming normative social influence
• asch :( a child of its time

  • perrin and spencer repeated study in 1980 (diverse decade) with 396 students only 1 conformed
  • asch's study was flawed - made his judgement in 50s which was a time of high conformism as people were afraid of being seen as a communist
  • BUT... perrin and spencers Ps were all maths and engineering students so their lack of conformity may be due to high confidence levels
• asch :( artificial situation

  • demand characteristics have been claimed
  • no reason to conform - wasnt a life or death situation it was trivial
  • group wasnt representative of situations in everyday life , study cannot be generalised
  • in real life things are more open to interpretation
• asch :( limited application

  • only men were tested
  • its been suggested women conform more
  • all Ps from USA - an individualist culture
  • in collectivist cultures (china, japan) conformity rates are higher than asch claimed
• asch :( limited application

  • williams and sogon disagree - found conformity was higher when people were around friends rather than strangers
  • perhaps asch was wrong to try to find conformity rates for people - we change our degree of conformity depending on situation on how much we want to impress to group / confidence
• asch :( ethical issues

  • Ps were deceived as they thought study and participants were real
  • deception is against BPS code of ethics
• asch :) task is unambiguous

  • a definite answer
  • question is easy, so you know they are conforming
• asch :) lab study

  • could control all variables and establish cause and effect - that majority did cause conformity
• variables affecting conformity - group size

  • conformity increases as group size increases
  • little change in conformity once group size reaches 4-5 (1 Confederate (C) = 3% conform, 2 C's 13%, 3+ 32%)
  • 4 = optimal group size as conformity does not increase in groups larger than this
• variables effecting conformity - non conforming role model


  • when one other person gave a different answer from the others, conformity dropped
  • the presence of even 1 confederate that goes against majority can reduce conformity as much as 80%
  • breaking unanimity of the group is important
• variables effecting conformity - difficulty of task


  • when comparision lines were more similar in length it was harder to judge and conformity increased , reflecting asch's results
  • when we are uncertain, we look to others for confirmation , more difficult the task, greater conformity
  • when people are confident they are less likely to conform even when it is a difficult task
• variables effecting conformity - giving answers in private


  • when Ps could write their answers down rather than announce them to the group, conformity dropped