explanations of conformity

• Deutsch & Gerard suggest a dual process model and point out that there are two main types of social influence that lead to people conforming
• normative social influence (NSI)

  • the desire to be liked
  • likely to result in compliance (short-term change)
• informational social influence (ISI)

  • the desire to be right
  • occur in ambiguous situations
  • likely to result in internalisation (permanent change)
• Schultz (2008)

  • persuade guests in a hotel to reuse their towels rather than having fresh ones everyday
  • data from 132 hotels and 794 hotel rooms where guests stayed for a week
  • control condition: a door hanger informed guests of environmental benefits of reusing towels
  • experimental condition: informed that '75% of guests choose to reuse their towels each day'
  • in comparison to the control group, guests reduced their need for towels by 25%
• strengths

  • Sherif's study using the autokinetic effect gives support for the existence of informational social influence
  • Todd Lucas et al (2006) - research evidence to support informational social influence
• weaknesses

  • NSI doesn't predict conformity in every case (nAffiliators)
  • unclear whether its NSI or ISI at work in research studies