Conformity

• Compliance is the shallowest level of conformity where a person conforms publicly but privately maintains their own views
• Identfication is the middle level of conformity where we adopt the values of a specific group when we are around them
• Internalisation is the deepest level of conformity where our private views are converted to match the group
• Deutsch and Gerard proposed the two-process theory as an explanation for conformity
• The two-process theory is composed of the need to be right and the need to be liked
• Normative social influence is agreeing with the majority to avoid beong rejected by the group
• NSI leads to compliance
• Informational social influence is agreeing with the majority because we believe they know better
• ISI leads to internalisation
• Jenness (1932) investigated conformity by conducting the Beans in the Jar experiment where 101 psychology students were asked how many beans were in the jar and then asked to provide a new answer following group discussion
• After group discussion, on average males changed their answer by 256 beans and females changed their answer by 382 beans
• The Beans in the Jar experiment supports ISI because the participants believed the group estimate was more likely to be right
• Asch investigated conformity with the line base line study where 123 American male students were put into groups of 6-8 and asked to say out loud which of three lines on a card matched the line X
• The confederates of Asch gave scripted incorrect answers each time and the naive participant was seated next to last
• During Asch's study, the naive participants agreed with the incorrect answers 36.8% of the time, and 25% of the participants never conformed
• Asch used three variables: group size, unanimity, and task difficulty
• In the group size variation the number of confederates varied from one to fifteen and showed a curvilinear relationship
• In the unanimity variation Asch introduced a non-conforming confederate which decreased conformity
• In the task difficulty variation Asch made the lines more similar which increased conformity