PMT - Social Influence New

• Conformity is a type of social influence
• Conformity is a change in a person’s behaviour or opinion as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
• Internalisation = Making the beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour of the group your own (the strongest type of conformity, and often occurs as a result of informational social influence).
• Identification = Temporary/short term change of behaviour and beliefs only in the presence of a group (middle level)
• Compliance = This means to follow other people’s ideas/to go along with the group to gain their approval or avoid disapproval. You publically agree but privately disagree (lowest/ weakest level of conformity) An individual’s change of view is temporary and is likely to occur as a result of normative social influence
• Informational Social Influence - When someone conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others by copying or obeying them, to have the right answer in a situation; when a person is uncertain or unsure, they would look to others for information.
• ISI usually leads to internalisation and occurs in situations where we do not have the knowledge or expertise to make our own decisions
• Evidence of ISI– Fein et al. asked participants to vote for a US presidential candidate after they saw others voting for somebody else.

  • Most of the participants changed their mind because they wanted to be ‘correct’, thus demonstrating the impact of informational social influence as a mechanism for conformity.
• Normative Social Influence – when someone conforms because they want to be liked and be part of a group; when a person’s need to be accepted or have approval from a group drives compliance
• NSI often occurs when a person wants to avoid the embarrassing situation of disagreeing with the majority.
• There is evidence supporting the link between NSI and bullying, thus suggesting a real-life application with an increased understanding of the different types of conformity.
• Garandeau and Cillissen found that a boy can be manipulated by a bully into victimising another child because the bully provides a common goal for the boy’s group of friends, the goal is to victimise the other child, so the boy would most likely also victimise the child to avoid disapproval from his friends.
• There is also evidence to support the role of ISI.

  • Lucas et al found that conformity to an obviously incorrect maths answer was greater when the question was more difficult and the participant rated their own maths ability unfavourably.
  • This shows that individuals are more likely to turn to others when they lack the information to make their own informed decisions i.e. in an ambiguous situation.
• NSI and ISI may not be completely exclusive, as suggested by Deutsch and Gerrard’s ‘Two Process Model’.
• Asch Participants

  • 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6
• Asch Aim

  • To investigate conformity and majority influence
• Asch Procedure

  • Participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line

  • They asked to state which of three lines was the same length as a stimulus line

  • The real participant always answered last or second to last

  • Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials

  • Asch observed how often the participant would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer
• Asch Findings

  • 36.8% conformed
  • 25% never conformed
  • 75% conformed at least once
  • In a control trial, only 1% of responses given by participants were incorrect
• Factors affecting Conformity

  • Group Size
  • Unanimity
  • Task Difficulty
• An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group.
• There was low conformity with group size of confederates were less than 3 - any more than 3 and the conformity rose by 30%.
• A person is more likely to conform if all members of the group are in agreement and give the same answer, because it will increase their confidence in correctness of the group, and decrease their confidence in their own answer.
• Conformity does not seem to increase in groups larger than four so this is considered the optimal group size.
• The majority must be at least 3 to exert an influence, but an overwhelming majority is not needed in all instances to bring about conformity.
• An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous.
• When joined by another participant or disaffected confederate who gave the correct answer, conformity fell from 32% to 5.5%. If different answers are given, it falls from 32% to 9%.
• The more unanimous the group is, the more confidence the participant will have that they are all correct, and therefore the participant’s answer is more likely to be incorrect
• Unanimity is vital in establishing a consistent majority view, which is particularly important by providing normative social influence through preventing any conflicting views arising.
• An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult.
• For example, Asch altered the lines making them more similar in length. Since it was harder to judge the correct answer conformity increased.
• When the task is difficult, we are more uncertain of our answer so we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity.
• ISI is a major mechanism for conformity when the situation is ambiguous and the individual does not have enough of their own knowledge or information to make an informed decision independently, and so has to look towards others.
• Asch Validity

  • There was strict control over extraneous variables, such as timing of assessment and the type of task used.
  • The participants did the experiment before without confederates to see if they actually knew the correct answer, thus removing the confounding variable of a lack of knowledge.
  • This suggests that valid and reliable ‘cause and effect’ relationships can be established, as well as valid conclusions.
• Asch Lab Experiment

  • Extraneous and confounding variables are strictly controlled, meaning that replication of the experiment is easy.
  • Successful replication increases the reliability of the findings because it reduces the likelihood that the observed findings were a ‘one-off’.
• Asch Ethics

  • The researchers breached the BPS ethical guideline of deception and consequently, the ability to give informed consent.
  • However, the participants were debriefed.
  • Ethical issues do not threaten the validity or reliability of findings, but rather suggest that a cost-benefit analysis is required.
• Asch Supports NSI

  • Participants reported that they conformed to fit in with the group, so it supports the idea of normative influence, which states that people conform to fit in when privately disagreeing with the majority.
• Asch Ecological Validity

  • It was based on peoples’ perception of lines and so the findings cannot be generalised to real life as it does not reflect the complexity of real life conformity
• Asch Population Validity

  • The participants were only American male undergraduates, and so the study was subject to gender bias, where it is assumed that findings from male participants can be generalised to females (i.e. beta bias).
• Asch Ethical Issues

  • There was deception as participants were tricked into thinking the study was about perception rather than compliance so they could not give informed consent.
  • There could have been psychological harm as the participants could have been embarrassed after realising the true aims of the study.
  • Such issues simply mean that a cost-benefit analysis is required
• Asch Temporal Validity

  • The social context of the 1950s may have affected results as it was an anti-Communist period where people were scared to be different.