conformity

Conformity

Yielding to real or perceived group pressure

• Majority influence

Three types of conformity

• Compliance

• Internalisation

• Identification

Compliance

• Individuals engage in social comparison, adjusting their own actions to fit with the group.

• They identify the group norms and then adopt those norms.

• Eg. look at how everyone dresses and then dresses the same.

• They do this because they want to fit in with the group, even if they may not always agree with them (hate what they are wearing).

• Usually no private belief - they may dress differently when at home.

• This is ‘shallow' conformity, a public but not private change

Internalisation

• Individuals examine group beliefs + adopt them as they believe they are correct.

• Leads to acceptance of the group’s point of view publicly + privately.

• Eg. you love how they dress + continue to do the same even when you are not in the group.

• This is ‘deep’ conformity, a long term private change.

• Jelly bean study

Identification

• Incorporates compliance + internalisation.

• Individual adopts + accepts group norms as their own to fit in

• You changed the way you dress to fit in, and you now accept that way of dressing.

• However, that may change when you leave the group.

• This is a short term public and private change.

Two explanations of conformity

• NSI (Normative social influence)

• ISI (Informational social influence)

Normative social influence

• Explanation of compliance

• We adopt the group norms simply to be liked by the group members.

• We may change our minds later as we may not privately agree with the behaviours of the group.

Informational social influence

• Based on our desire to be right.

• When the situation is ambiguous

• We look to those we think are correct to give us information on how to act, especially if we are not familiar with a situation.

• We believe the opinions we have adopted.

• We are unsure at first, so compare our thoughts to others.

• This is internalisation.

Conformity - real life examples

• Following fashion trends

• Adopting values of a particular social group

• Peer pressure

• Cultural traditions

• Can have positive or negative effects on society

Haun et al - Aim

To see if children, orangutans + chimpanzees change their behaviours when exposed to a majority of peers showing an equally effective alternative strategy

New cards

Haun et al - Sample

• 18 children (2 years old)

• 9 females

• 9 males

• 12 chimpanzees (10 years old)

• 7 females

• 5 males

• 12 orangutans (8 years old)

• 6 females

• 6 males

Haun et al - Procedure

• Box with three sections, each a different colour

• Outer sections were the same height, middle section smaller + hole on top of each section

• Boxes were attached to a steel mesh observation room for animals and on the ground for children

• Sometimes a reward was dispensed (peanuts for animals + chocolate for children)

• They kept going until they got 8/10 right.

• They watched 3 animals who were 2m away demonstrate one at a time, another succesful technique (different box) twice each

• If a participant wasn’t looking whilst the ball was dropped in the box, the attempt was repeated.

• 30 seconds later, participants were given 3 balls, one at a time and allowed to put them in any box.

• All 3 choices were rewarded

• Actions were videoed + coded as ‘switch’ (copying demonstrator), ‘stay’ (same box as before) + ‘other’ (third option)

Haun et al - Results

Scores calculated by ‘switch’ - ‘score’

• Children conformed over half the time

• Animals almost always stayed with their own technique

Haun et al - Conclusion

• Children as young as 2 are more likely to adjust their behaviour to fit their peers.

• Human children conformed over half the time

• The two animal populations almost exclusively stayed with their individually acquired strategies.

• Children are more likely to conform than orangutans and chimpanzees.

Gore & Rotter

• Found those who marched for African-American rights in 1960s USA were more likely to have an internal LoC than those who did not march

• Those who marched felt as though they could make a difference by marching, so did not conform to the majority who chose not to march

Bornstein - individual differences

• Stated that those who have strong needs for approval from others are more conforming

• Leaders who have managed to convince the majority to change to the minority position often have a charismatic personality

• Throughout history there have been examples of this, eg. Hitler gave powerful speeches which incited prejudice + discrimination against jews + other minority groups.

• But speakers like MLK jr gave great speeches emphasising the equality of all people + groups + admonishing discriminatory practices like segregation.

Becker - individual differences

• Said strong charismatic leaders promise safety from threats + the idea that life will be better after tackling causes of ‘evil’ but in following these strong leaders, people often do great amounts of harm.

Kosloff - individual differences

• Found that even in situations when they are believed to be under threat, people are only drawn to leaders who encapsulate their views.

• A person holding liberal views will be drawn towards a liberal charismatic leader + one with conservative views will be drawn to a conservative charismatic leader

• Suggests that there needs to be a degree of overlap in their existing attitudes

Situational factors effecting conformity

• Group size

• Unanimity of the group (if one other confederate gives the correct answer, the unanimity of the group is broken + we are less likely to conform)

Cultural factors affecting conformity.

Like obedience, people in collectivist cultures - more likely to conform than others - in a collectivist culture everything is done for the good of the group + conformity maintains harmony

Bond and Smith - Cultural factors affecting conformity.

• Meta-analysis

• 133 studies across 17 countries replicating Asch’s study

• Conformity was greater in more collectivist countries eg. Fiji

• Compared to individualistic countries eg. US

Kim and Markus - Cultural factors affecting conformity.

• Found US adverts tended to focus on uniqueness

• Korean advets focused on themes of conformity eg. 7/10 people use this product.

Perrin & Spencer - Cultural factors affecting conformity.

• Found with UK science + engineering students

• Almost no one conformed out of almost 400 trials of Asch’s study

• Shows culture may have affected conformity rates

smith et al

• study on minority influence

• when the minority put fowards their opinion, conformity to their ideas become stronger

e.g. when news papers highlight protests that are happening by minority groups.