Explanations for conformity

• Normative social influence 


  conformity is the result of an individual changing to a group position to be accepted and gain approval - based on the desire to be liked - humans have a strong need for acceptance by majority and a fear of rejection - occurs as it's rewarding to be accepted and be a part of a group - usually involves public compliance - may go along with behaviour of others without accepting it
• NSI EVALUATION - Asch's conformity research

  found when a group of confederates unanimously gave same incorrect answer on unambiguous, mean conformity rate was 37% - concluded they conformed to avoid standing out from the crowd - conform out of a desire to be liked to gain approval from group
• NSI EVALUATION - Asch's repeated study


  asked participants to write down their answers instead of saying them out loud - conformity rates dropped from 37% to 12.5% - suggests less fear of social disapproval and rejection made conformity rates lower
• NSI EVALUATION - struggles to explain individual differences

  found a mean conformity rate of 37% but a wide variation between participants - 25% remained completely independent and went against majority and gave correct answer on all 12 critical trials despite group pressure - doesn't consider the personality differences between people
• Informative social influence


  conformity result of people being unsure what to do in a situation so they look to others with seemingly more information in order to identify correct behaviour - if a situation is ambiguous we look to others as a source of information to help us perceive situation accurately - desire to be right - involves internalisation (private acceptance ) - genuinely believe they're right - can result in change of beliefs and attitudes
• ISI EVALUATION - Asch's variations

  made the line judgement task more ambiguous by making the lines more similar in length, conformity rate increased - concluded due to participants having less confidence in own judgement - shows we conform out of a desire to be right - however, lacks mundane realism as it doesn't reflect real life conformity situations and has low ecological validity
• ISI EVALUATION - Jennes's study

  participants given task with no clear answer of guessing number of jelly beans in a jar - found individual estimates moved towards others estimates showing they privately believed estimates showing internalisation - shows we conform out of a desire to be right
• ISI EVALUATION - more real life conformity research by Lucas et al


  found when students asked to give answers to maths problems that were easy or difficult, greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than easy - most true for students who rated maths ability as poor - we conform to help us identify correct behaviour