Conformity

• Conformity - yielding to group pressure

  • occurs when an individual's behaviour is influenced by a larger group of people
• Internalisation - a deep type of conformity

  • when an individual genuinely adjusts their behaviour and opinions to those of the group which leads to both public and private acceptance
  • true conformity
  • even when the group pressure is removed, the thoughts remain
• Identification - moderate type of conformity

  • when an individual adjusts their behaviour andopinions to those a group to obtain membership into the group
  • public & temporary change to beliefs
• Compliance - low level of conformity

  • desires to fit in and involves public and not private acceptance of the group's attitues and behaviours
  • they change in order to gain approval or avoid disapproval which means a particular opinion stops as soon as group pressure stops
• NSI - normative social influence

  • as humans, we have a fundamental need for companionship and fear rejection
  • we conform because we wish to gain approval and acceptance by others and avoid rejection
  • occurs when we are under surveillance by group and want to fit in
  • generally assosciated with compliance as it involves public but not private acceptance
• ISI- informational social influence

  • as humans we have a basic need to feel confident that our ideas are corret
  • when we are unsure about our ideas, we look to others for guidance and so it can occur in ambigous situations where we are unsure of the answer
  • generally assosciated with internalisation as it involves public and private acceptance
• ISI - research evidence

  • JENNESS (1932)
  • 101 psych students gave individual private estimates of the number of beans in a jar
  • discussed in 3s and made a second private estimate
  • nearly all Ps changed their estimate and converged to a value which shows the power of conformity in ambiguous social situations
• ISI- limitations

  • Jenness' study is not mundanely realistic as the task lacks this and could result in demand characteristics which affects the validity of the results
• ISI - real life application

  • can be seen to have survival value as others can provide guidance on a situation that is potentially dangerous if they are more knowledgeable in that area
• NSI - complete explanation?

  • not a complete explanation as we do not all conform to be liked which is supported by research that shows people are less concerned with being liked and are therefore less affected
  • doesn't account for individual differences
• NSI - research support

  • Solomon Asch (1955)
• Asch, 1955 - aims

  aimed to investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave the wrong answers
• Asch, 1955 - procedure

  • 123 American male student volunteers took part in what they were told was a procedure on visual perception
  • Ps placed into groups of 7-9 either in a line or around a table. (ALL confederates with ONE real participant.)
  • The task was to say which line, A,B,C, was the same as the stimulus line, on 18 different trials
  • 12/18 critical trials
  • the naive P was always the last or the last but one
• Asch, 1955, findings

  • for experimental Ps, there was a 32% conformity rate on critical trials
  • 75% of Ps conformed at least once
  • 32% conformity rate on critical trials
  • Ps gave different reasons for judgement, amongst the idea that they did not want to be ridiculed, or the fact that they doubted their judgement
• Asch, 1955, conclusions

  The judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions even when they are obviously wrong.

  Asch conluded that people will conform to a majority even in an unambiguous situation to gain acceptance of the group.
• Evaluation - Asch

  • mundane realism - the task was unrealistic - not asked to do this in our daiy lives and so it would be unusual to be in this situatioon
  • gives rise to demand characteristics Ps must have known they were a part of the study
• Evaluation - Asch

  • deception involved and so it could be seen as unethical as they were lied to, Ps were also put under psychological stress and discomfort through agreeing with others
• Evaluation - Asch

  • only men tested
  • volunteer study
  • male gender roles demant that they remain independent
  • research suggests that women may be more conformist
  • Eagly believes that women focus more on the quality of relationships and take greater responsiblity for maintaining and creating interpersonal relationships thus leading them to conform more whereas male gender roles suggest that they must remain more independent
• Evaluation - Asch

  • culture - American men tested but they are individualist and there are higher rates of conformity in other cultures
• Variables affecting conformity - UNANIMITY


  • the extent to which all the members of a group agree
  • Asch added a dissenter and found that conformity dropped from 32% to 5.5%
  • when support is given, participants found it easier to disagree with the group
• Variables affecting conformity- Group Size


  • Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates thus increasing the size of the majority
  • the greater the size of the group, the larger the conformity effect, BUT only up to a certain point.
  • No further effect past 15
  • MAX reached with 3
• Variables affecting conformity - Task Difficulty

  • conformity rates increased if the task is made more difficult.
  • stimulus line and comparison line made closer in length which made the right answer less obvious and so they look to others for support
  • ISI plays a greater role when the task becomes harder