evaluating explanations for conformity

• size of group - larger size of group increases normative social influence
• how do Asch's study findings support the explanations?

  supports normative social influence in the original task as task is easy and the reasons some participants gave afterwards were they conformed as wanted to fit in and would be embarrassing to go against the group
• Asch's study also supports informational social influence, as some reported they questioned their eyesight
• task difficulty - harder task increases informational influence
• unanimity - if a support provided normative influence reduced. if no support then normative is increased.
• Supporting evidence JENNESS (1932)- asked participants to estimate the number of beans in a glass jar, first individually then in a group. When asked individually again, after the group estimate, participants gave an estimate which was more similar to that of the group. this showed informational social influence, when a task is ambiguous and they seek guidance from others.
• supporting evidence SHERIFF (1935) - asked participants to estimate how far a spotlight moved in a dark room (spotlight didnt actually move). participants were asked alone and in groups of three. when alone participants estimates varied widely however in the repeated group trials the participants estimates got closer together until they were very similar. this shows informational social influence in an ambiguous situation.
• dispositional evidence could affect conformity
• Opposing evidence MORI and ARAI - repeated the Asch experiment in Japan and found that female participants were more likely to conform to males.
• Opposing evidence PERRIN and SPENCER found English engineering students conformed to less when they repeated Asch's experiment. This may have been due to having confidence in their own ability to estimate lengths of lines.
• Opposing evidence CRUTCHFIELD - identified a 'conforming personality' which includes traits such as low self confidence
• Different theory It is objectively difficult to test or measure - no easy way of telling which social influence is at play in any given situation.
• different theory dispositional variables could affect conformity
• different theory the type of conformity identification doesnt fit with normative (compliance) or informational (internalisation) social influence.
• application informational social influence explains conformity on ambiguous day to day tasks
• application normative social influence explains conformity on ambiguous day to day tasks
• application example group of friends deciding what to do, work group decisions