Defined by Baron et al. (2006): 'A
type of social influence in which
individuals change their attitudes,
beliefs or behaviour in order to
adhere to existing social norms'.
This definition emphasises the
importance of social norms as a
key social cause of people
conforming. Social norms are
just one example (albeit an
important one) of a majority view.
As such, conformity can be
said to occur in any situation
where a person or small
group of people is exposed
to a majority and conform.
Conformity, then, can be
seen as majority influence.
Classic Studies
of Conformity.
Research
Study:
Sherif (1936)
Conducted numerous
experiments using the
autokinetic effect. Where
participants had no previous
experience of the
autokinetic effect, he found
that conformity to a majority
view happened very quickly.
In general, Sherif
found that in
ambiguous
situations, such as
those presented by
the autokinetic effect,
the less previous
experience a person
has of the situation,
the more powerful
conformity to the
majority view will be.
Asch's Study of Conformity.
Research Study:
Asch (1951)
Asch wanted to know whether or
not people would conform to a
majority view when the majority
view was obviously wrong. He
investigated conformity using a
simple perceptual task in which
participants were asked to state
which of three comparison lines was
the same length as the target line.
Asch interviewed each
participant after they had
taken part in his study. The
participants who had agreed
with the majority gave various
reasons for their behaviour.
E.g. They they did not want to spoil
the experimenter's results; that they
did not want to be different to the
others; that they had actually made
the correct judgements; and that
they might have been suffering
from eye strain.
Asch (1955) said that while
the studies of Sherif (1936)
showed some aspects of
conformity, they did not
demonstrate how social or
group pressure would affect
the judgements people
make when there is clearly
a right or wrong answer.
Types of Conformity.
Internalisation.
This is where the individual accepts
the majority group view and
believes that view to be correct.
We may call this 'private
acceptance', where a person
conforms to other people's
behaviour in the genuine
belief that they are right.
The Sherif experiment is a good example of
internalisation or private acceptance. His findings suggest
that in ambiguous situations, people rely on each other to
decide what is right and then they stay with this view.
Compliance.
This is where a person
conforms to other people's
behaviours or attitudes, but does
not believe them to be correct.
This is when you go
along with other people's
views, or do what they do,
to 'keep the peace', or not
cause any conflict or
disagreement with others.
It would be best to call this
'public compliance'
because you are agreeing
with others publicly, even if
you think they are wrong.
The Asch experiment is a good
example of compliance, since
participants gave various reasons
for agreeing with the majority that
were to do with not upsetting other
people. Very few participants in
Asch's experiment actually believed
the incorrect majority view.
Explanations for Conformity.
People follow social
norms. Many social
norms are a product
of our upbringing
and socialisation.
Social norms are
rules, which may be
written or unwritten,
guiding how people
are expected to
behave in many
social situations.
Normative Social Influence.
This is where people conform to
maintain the harmony of the group,
to avoid rejection by the group or
gain approval from others.
The result of normative social
influence is that people publicly
comply with the majority view or
the social norms of a group.
However, privately
they disagree or
hold different views
to the majority.
Normative social influence
can be seen in many
aspects of our daily lives.
E.g. Clothing fashions
change every year.
Research
Study:
Anderson et al.
(1992)
Informational Social Influence.
This is the conformity to the
majority as a result of
information (things you did
not know, persuasive
arguments, etc) presented to
you by others in the group.
This form of
influence
results in
private
acceptance
of the
majority view.
Private acceptance
or internalisation of
views results in a
person repeating
that view to others.
This does
not happen
with public
compliance
in normative
influence.
Informational social
influence is more likely to
cause conformity in more
ambiguous situations, such
as the autokinetic effect. In
situations where there is less
or little uncertainty, normative
social influence is more likely
to produce conformity.
The reason that
informational social
influence occurs where
uncertainty is high is
that people have a
need to be sure, or a
desire to be right, as
often as possible.
Research Study:
Baron et al. (1996)
Factors Affecting Conformity.
Decreasing Conformity.
Asch found that,
generally, as group size
increases, a larger
incorrect majority results in
higher levels of conformity.
With small groups of two or three,
where there are only one or two
confederates giving the wrong
answer, conformity drops to below
10% among naive participants.
Asch found that not having to say the answer out loud
allowed participants to express their private view without
having to be concerned about what other members of the
group might think. (Variation of his original study by asking
participants to write their answer on a piece of paper, after
hearing the wrong views of others in the group).
Research Study:
Crutchfield
(1955)
Generally, decreases in
conformity are found when
information is good or of high
quality, and when exposure
of an individual's view to a
group is reduced or kept
private to the individual.
Increasing Conformity.
Stang (1973) found that,
generally, the more attractive
a group is to the participant,
the greater will be conformity
to the majority view.
The cohesiveness of a
group has also been
found to affect conformity.
Cohesiveness
concerns the extent to
which the individuals
in a group like each
other and prize being a
member of the group.
Studies conducted in
different cultures showed
that conformity is higher in
collectivist than in
individualistic cultures.
The main explanation for
this is that collectivist
cultures strive to achieve
group harmony more than
individualistic cultures do.
Personality and Conformity.
Crutchfield (1955) suggested
that personality characteristics
associated with high levels of
conformity include low
self-esteem, low intelligence,
high levels of anxiety and
high need for social approval.
The 'authoritarian
personality' (Adorno
et al. 1950) is also
associated with high
levels of conformity.
According to Adorno, the authoritarian personality
is one in which a person values convention, rules
and obeying those in authority. It is associated both
with obedience to authority and with prejudice.