Social factors

• Social meaning

  • Other people
  • Conformity occurs because of real or imagined pressure from others
• Group size

  • More people in a group, the greater pressure to conform
  • Two confederates= conformity was 13.6%
  • Three confederates= conformity was 31.8%
• Group size evaluation

  • Effect of group size depends on the task
  • With no obvious answer, people tend not to conform unless group size is 8 or more people
• Anonymity

  • When participants could write down answers (anonymous), conformity was lower
• Evaluation of anonymity

  • If participants are expressing opinions anonymously, they conform more
• Task difficulty

  • If comparison lines are more similar to the standard, the task becomes harder
  • Conformity therefore increases