Explanations of Conformity

• ISI


  informational social influence

  • tends to take place when the individual is unsure and lacks knowledge and looks to the group for guidance
  • take place in a crisis situation when a decision needs to be made quickly and the assumption follows "the group knows what to do"
  • more likely to be affected by ISI if they are insecure about what the groups opinions are (more about information-processing than NSI)
  • linked to internalisation
• NSI


  Normative Social Influence

  • tends to take place when the individual wishes to be accepted by a group
  • when an individual is trying to fit in with the group's norms
  • Someone is more likely to be affected by NSI if they feel that their own behaviour/attitudes don't align with the group and this causes them anxiety which in turn may lead them to adjust to the group ( more emotional than ISI)
  • linked to compliance and identification
• Examples - ISI


  Examples of ISI include:

  • On the first day of a new job an individual follows the group at lunchtime as their assumption is that the group knows where the canteen is
  • Someone collapses in the street but no-one stops to help so the individual assumes that it's not serious (after all, if it was a serious emergency then someone would stop to help, wouldn't they?)
• Examples - NSI


  Examples of NSI include:

  • Agreeing with the group that the new film is bad while secretly having enjoyed it
  • 'Ghosting' a schoolfriend because this is what everyone else in the group is doing but feeling bad about it and believing that this is cruel and wrong
• Evaluation


  Strengths + Weaknesses

  • There is good research support for both ISI and NSI e.g. Smith & Bond's (1996) meta-analysis which gives both explanations validity
  • NSI has good application to global/historical events e.g. the behaviour of normal German people involved in the Holocaust
  • It is often difficult sometimes to differentiate between NSI and ISI (e.g. in Asch's research both explanations could apply)
  • Both explanations cannot explain why some people refuse to or resist conformity
• Deutsch + Gerard

  identified ISI + NSI as motivating factors
• Jenness 


  A piece of supporting research for ISI is Jenness. In Jenness’ study participants were asked to make independent judgements about the number of jellybeans in a jar and make an estimate of what number of jellybeans were in the jar and then afterwards discuss their estimates in a group. After this discussion, participants then made another individual private estimate. Jenness found that this second private estimate moved closer to the group estimate and that females typically conformed more.