Conformity can be explained as stemming from two different motivations:
Normative social influence
Informational social influence
Normative social influence occurs when an individual is keen to adopt the socialnorms of a specific group.
What explanation of conformity is linked to compliance and identification?
Normative social influence
Normative social influence may involve an individual going against their inner beliefs, ideals or opinions in order not to be rejected by the group
The essence of normative social influence is emotional as it is based on the need to be liked and accepted by others
Informationalsocialinfluence tends to take place when the individual is unsure and/or lacks knowledge about what to do or how to behave in a specific situation.
Which explanation is more likely to take place if someone is insecure about what is deemed right/wrong behaviour
Informational social influence
the essence of informationalsocialinfleunce is cognitive as it is based on information processing
There is research supporting informational social influence. Jenness asked participants to estimate the number of beans contained in a jar. Participants then discussed their estimates in a group and then each participant made a second independent estimate. Findings showed that the second estimate moved closer to the group estimate.
