Conformity

• What is conformity?

  Change in belief or behavior to fit in
• What are the three types of conformity?

  • Compliance
  • Identification
  • Internalisation
• What is compliance in terms of conformity?

  Conforming publicly while disagreeing privately
• How does identification differ from compliance?

  Changes beliefs publicly to fit in with a group
• What is internalisation in conformity?

  Accepting and internalising group views as one's own
• What was the aim of Asch's 1951 study?

  To investigate conformity to obvious answers
• Describe the procedure of Asch's study.

  • 123 American men participated
  • Tested in groups of 6 to 8
  • Presented with a standard line and three comparison lines
  • Only one participant per group; others were confederates
  • Confederates gave the same incorrect answer
• What percentage of the time did participants agree with incorrect answers in Asch's study?

  36.8%
• What fraction of naive participants conformed in Asch's study?

  ⅓ of the time
• What percentage of participants never conformed in Asch's study?

  25%
• What variables did Asch investigate that affect conformity?

  • Group Size: Increases with up to 3 people
  • Unanimity: Decreases with a dissenter present
  • Task Difficulty: Increases as difficulty rises
• How does group size affect conformity according to Asch's findings?

  Conformity increases with group size up to 3
• What effect does unanimity have on conformity?

  Conformity decreases with a dissenter present
• How does task difficulty influence conformity?

  Conformity increases as task difficulty increases
• What research supports Asch's claim about task difficulty affecting conformity?

  • Lucas et al (2006) study
  • Participants solved easy and hard maths problems
  • Conformed more often on harder problems
• What individual factor did Lucas et al (2006) find that affects conformity?

  Confidence in maths abilities
• How did confidence in maths abilities affect conformity in Lucas et al's study?

  High confidence led to less conformity on hard tasks
• What are the limitations of Asch's study regarding the situation and task?

  • Participants knew it was a study
  • Task of identifying lines is trivial
  • Findings may not generalize to real-world situations
• What is a limitation regarding the application of Asch's findings?

  • Participants were all American men
  • Other research suggests women may conform more
  • Individualistic vs collectivist culture differences
• What are the two human needs that conformity is based on?

  Informative and Normative Social Influence
• What is informative social influence?

  Need to be right and seek guidance
• What type of process is informative social influence?

  Cognitive process
• What is normative social influence?

  Need to fit in and gain social approval
• What type of process is normative social influence?

  Emotional process
• What research supports normative social influence (NSI)?

  • Asch (1951) interviews
  • Participants felt self-conscious
  • Conformity dropped to 12.5% when answering privately
• What research supports informative social influence (ISI)?

  • Lucas et al (2006) study
  • Participants conformed more on difficult maths questions
  • Did not want to be wrong in ambiguous situations
• Who are nAffiliators?

  People concerned with being liked and accepted
• What did McGhee & Teevan (1967) find about nAffiliators?

  They are more likely to conform
• What is unclear regarding NSI and ISI?

  • Hard to separate NSI and ISI effects
  • Both likely operate together in real-world situations
• AO3 - What is a strength of Asch’s Research?

  Research Support

  • Lucas et al (2006) asked their participants to solve easy and hard maths problems
  • Participants were given answers from 3 other confederates, with which the participants conformed more often when the problems were harder
  • This shows Asch was correct in claiming that task difficulty is one variable that affects conformity
• AO3 - What is a limitation of Asch’s Research?

  Individual Factors

  • Lucas et al (2006) found that conformity is more complex that Asch suggested
  • Participants with high confidence in their maths abilities conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence
  • This shows that an individual-level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables, but Asch did not research the roles of individual factors
• AO3 - What is a limitation on Asch’s Research?

  Artificial Situation and Task

  • Participants knew they were in a research study and may have displayed demand characteristics
  • The task of identifying lines is trivial and therefore there was no reason not to conform
  • This means the findings do not generalise to real world situations, especially those where the consequences of conformity might be important
• AO3 - What is a limitation of Asch’s Research

  Limited Application

  • While Asch’s participants were all American men, other research suggests that women may be more conformist, as they are concerned with social relationships and being accepted
  • Furthermore, the US is an individualistic culture and conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures found that conformity rates are higher
  • This means that Asch’s findings tell us little about conformity in women and people from some cultures
• AO3 - What is a strength of Explanations of Conformity?

  Research Support for NSI

  • When Asch (1951) interviewed his participants, some said they felt self-conscious and so conformed
  • When participants wrote answers down, conformity dropped down to 12.5% as answering privately removes any normative group pressure
  • This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire not to be rejected by the group
• AO3 - What is a strength for Explanations of Conformity?

  Research Support for ISI

  • Lucas et al (2006) found that participants conformed more often to incorrect answers when the maths questions were difficult
  • The participants did not want to be wrong so they relied on the answers given when the situation became ambiguous
  • This shows that ISI is a valid explanation of conformity
• AO3 - What is a limitation for Explanations of Conformity

  Individual Differences in NSI

  • nAffiliators are people who are greatly concerned with being liked, as they have a strong need for affiliation
  • McGhee & Teevan (1967) found that students who were nAffiliators were more likely to conform
  • This shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than others and that there are individual differences that can not be fully explained by one theory
• AO3 - What is a limitation for Explanations of Conformity?

  Unclear

  • Asch (1955) found that conformity reduced when there is another dissenting participant
  • The dissenter may reduce the effect of NSI in the form of social support or of ISI as an alternative source of information
  • Therefore, it is hard to separate ISI and NSI and both probably operate together in most real-world conformity situations