Social Influence - NSI and ISI

• Define Conformity


  occurs when someone changes their behaviour or beliefs due to real or imagined pressure from others
• Define Internalisation


  the deepest level of conformity.

  here a person changes both their public behaviour and private beliefs. this is usually a long-term change and often the result of ISI.
• Define Identification


  the middle level of conformity.

  here a person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs but only while they are in the presence of the group they are identifying with.

  this is usually a short-term change often the result of NSI.
• Define Compliance


  the lowest level of conformity.

  here a person changes their public opinion but not their private beliefs.

  this is usually a short-term change and often the result of NSI.
• Normative Social Influence (NSI)


  where a person conforms in order to be accepted and belong to a group.

  they do this as it's socially rewarding and/or to avoid social rejection.
• Informational Social Influence (ISI)

  where a person conforms to gain knowledge, or because they believe that someone else is 'right'.
• Individual Differences (Strength)


  - some research shows that NSI doesn't affect everyone's behaviour.

  - e.g. people less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI -> nAffiliators.

  - McGhee and Teevan found that students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform.

  - suggests that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others.
• Research Support for NSI (Strength)

  - Asch's study into conformity supports NSI.

  - many ppts went along with the wrong answers of the other group members. when asked post-experiment, ppts said they changed their answer to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group.

  - in a later variation - pressure to publicly conform is removed, conformity rates fell to 12.5% as fear of rejection was less.
• Research Support for ISI (Strength)

  - Lucas et al asked students to give answers to math problems that were easy or more difficult.

  - greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than easier ones.

  - conform in situations where they feel they don't know the answer - outcome predicted by ISI.

  - supports the need to be right.
• Real World Applications (Strength)

  - Schultz et al gathered data from many hotels over a week where guests were allocated to rooms randomly as either control or experimental conditions.

  - experimental condition '75% of guests chose to reuse their towels each day'.

  - results shows that guests who received a message that contained NSI - reduced their need for fresh towels by 25%.