Conformity

• Asch's baseline procedure


  - 123 American men, each in a group with confederates.

  - Saw 2 white cards on each trial with lines A,B and C (comparison lines) on one card and line X on another (clearly resembling one of the 3 latter lines)

  - They said out loud which one they thought resembled line X the most.
• Asch's findings

  - Participants gave the wrong answer 36% of the time.

  - Overall 25% of participants did not conform on any trails, which means 75% conformed at least once.

  - When participant were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI).
• Asch's group size variation

  - Varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15.

  - Found a curvilinear relationship.

  - With 3 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31%.
• Asch's unanimity variation


  - Introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates.

  - Genuine participant conformed less often in the presence of the dissenter.
• Asch's task difficulty variation

  - Increased the difficulty of the line-judging task.

  - Conformity increased.
• Limitations of Asch's research


  Artificial situation and task

  - Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected (demand characteristics).

  
  

  Limited application

  - The US is an individualist culture.

  - Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures have found that conformity rates are higher.

  
  

  Ethical issues

  - Participants were deceived because they thought the other people involved in the procedure were also genuine participants like themselves.

  - HOWEVER, it is worth bearing in mind that this ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study.
• Strengths of Asch's research

  Research support

  - Lucas et al (2006) asked participants to solve easy and hard maths questions.

  - Participants were given answers from 3 other students.

  - Participants conformed more often when the problems were harder.

  - HOWEVER, conformity is more complex than Asch suggested. Participant with high confidence in maths abilities conformed less.
• Types of conformity

  Compliance

  Identification

  Internalisation
• Internalisation

  - A deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct.

  - It leads to a far-reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent.
• Identification

  - Publicly change our opinions to be accepted by the group, even if we don't privately agree with everything the group stands for.
• Compliance


  - Only a superficial change.

  - A particular behaviour stops as soon as group pressure stops.
• Informational social influence

  The influence other people have on us because we want to be right.
• Normative social influence

  Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval
• Strengths for conformity


  Research support for NSI

  - Asch's research

  
  

  Research support for ISI

  - Lucas et al's research
• Limitations for conformity


  Individual differences in NSI

  - Some people are called nAffiliators - they have a strong need for affiliation.
• The Stanford prison experiment


  - Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behaviour.

  - Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison.

  - The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty.

  
• Stanford prison experiment findings

  - The guards became more abusive: waking prisoners in night to clean toilets with bare hands, degrading activities.

  - Some guards volunteered to do extra hours without pay.

  - When one prisoner had enough he asked for 'parole' instead of asking to withdraw.

  - 5 prisoners had to be released early because they were too unstable.

  - The study was terminated after only 6 days.

  
• Stanford prison experiment conclusions

  Power of situation to influence people's behaviour, all roles conformed, even chaplain behaved as in prison not study

  
• Strengths of Zimbardo's research

  Control

  - Degree of control over variables increases the internal validity of the study.
• Limitations of Zimbardo's research

  Lack of realism

  - Participants' performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards were supposed to behave.

  - HOWEVER, McDermott (2019) 90% of the prisoners' conversations were about prison life. 'Prisoner 416' later explained how he believed the prison was a real one.

  
  

  Exaggerates the power of roles

  - Only 1/3 of the guards actually behaved in a brutal manner.

  - Another third tried to apply the rules fairly.

  - The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners.

  
  

  Alternative explanation

  - Reicher and Haslam (2006) used social identity theory instead to argue that the 'guards' had to actively identify with their social roles to act as they did.
• Asch's baseline procedure


  - 123 American men, each in a group with confederates.

  - Saw 2 white cards on each trial with lines A,B and C (comparison lines) on one card and line X on another (clearly resembling one of the 3 latter lines)

  - They said out loud which one they thought resembled line X the most.
• Asch's findings

  - Participants gave the wrong answer 36% of the time.

  - Overall 25% of participants did not conform on any trails, which means 75% conformed at least once.

  - When participant were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI).
• Asch's group size variation

  - Varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15.

  - Found a curvilinear relationship.

  - With 3 confederates, conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31%.
• Asch's unanimity variation

  - Introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates.

  - Genuine participant conformed less often in the presence of the dissenter.
• Asch's task difficulty variation

  - Increased the difficulty of the line-judging task.

  - Conformity increased.
• Limitations of Asch's research


  Artificial situation and task

  - Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected (demand characteristics).

  
  

  Limited application

  - The US is an individualist culture.

  - Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures have found that conformity rates are higher.

  
  

  Ethical issues

  - Participants were deceived because they thought the other people involved in the procedure were also genuine participants like themselves.

  - HOWEVER, it is worth bearing in mind that this ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study.
• Strengths of Asch's research

  Research support

  - Lucas et al (2006) asked participants to solve easy and hard maths questions.

  - Participants were given answers from 3 other students.

  - Participants conformed more often when the problems were harder.

  - HOWEVER, conformity is more complex than Asch suggested. Participant with high confidence in maths abilities conformed less.
• Types of conformity


  Compliance

  Identification

  Internalisation
• Internalisation


  - A deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct.

  - It leads to a far-reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent.
• Identification


  - Publicly change our opinions to be accepted by the group, even if we don't privately agree with everything the group stands for.
• Compliance

  - Only a superficial change.

  - A particular behaviour stops as soon as group pressure stops.
• Informational social influence

  The influence other people have on us because we want to be right.
• Normative social influence


  Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval
• Strengths for conformity


  Research support for NSI

  - Asch's research

  
  

  Research support for ISI

  - Lucas et al's research
• Limitations for conformity


  Individual differences in NSI

  - Some people are called nAffiliators - they have a strong need for affiliation.
• The Stanford prison experiment

  - Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behaviour.

  - Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison.

  - The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty.

  
• Stanford prison experiment findings

  - The guards became more abusive: waking prisoners in night to clean toilets with bare hands, degrading activities.

  - Some guards volunteered to do extra hours without pay.

  - When one prisoner had enough he asked for 'parole' instead of asking to withdraw.

  - 5 prisoners had to be released early because they were too unstable.

  - The study was terminated after only 6 days.

  
• Stanford prison experiment conclusions

  Power of situation to influence people's behaviour, all roles conformed, even chaplain behaved as in prison not study

  
• Strengths of Zimbardo's research

  Control

  - Degree of control over variables increases the internal validity of the study.
• Limitations of Zimbardo's research

  Lack of realism

  - Participants' performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards were supposed to behave.

  - HOWEVER, McDermott (2019) 90% of the prisoners' conversations were about prison life. 'Prisoner 416' later explained how he believed the prison was a real one.

  
  

  Exaggerates the power of roles

  - Only 1/3 of the guards actually behaved in a brutal manner.

  - Another third tried to apply the rules fairly.

  - The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners.

  
  

  Alternative explanation

  - Reicher and Haslam (2006) used social identity theory instead to argue that the 'guards' had to actively identify with their social roles to act as they did.