Types and explanations

Conformity

The tendency to change our behaviour or attitudes in response to group pressure either real or imagined

Compliance

Where people go along with the majority publicly while disagreeing privately. The change happens only while the group is monitoring you. To gain approval. Weak and temporary

Internalisation

Where people take on the majority view as we view it as correct. Changing people’s attitudes and opinions even when the group is absent. Lasting and permanent.

Normative social influence

Based on the desire to be liked and accepted by the group. They conform because of fear of rejection. The individual may agree publicly but privately disagree. It is most often linked with compliance. Emotional not cognitive response

Informational social influence

People are unsure of how to behave. Consequence of not knowing what to say or do. Desire to do the right thing. Attitudes and behaviours change publicly and privately. Most often linked with internalisation. Cognitive not emotional response.

Dissent

Differ in opinion or disagreeing with a majority opinion

nAffiliators

Greatly concerned with being liked by others. Strong need for affiliation.

NSI S Asch

Research support

Instructed participants to write their answers rather than say it.

Conformity went down to 12.5%.

Writing them down removes fear of rejection

Increases validity as people change their behaviour to be liked

NSI S Real-world application

Linkenbach and Perkins

Launched a campaign to say that a lot of young people in the area didn’t smoke while investigating teen smoking.

Large decrease in teenagers who smoked compared to control group.

When they heard about the ‘normal’ behaviour, they changed their choices.

Suggests that NSI happens outside of laboratory settings.

NSI W Teevan + McGhee

NSI doesn’t always predict conformity

Student nAffiliators = More conformity

NSI underlines conformity for different types of people. No general theory to explain it.

ISI S Lucas

Easy and hard maths problems

Subjects given answers from 3 confederates

Increased conformity for harder problems. Subjects knew their minds for easier questions so decreased conformity for them.

ISI S Bokemper

COVID-19 mask wearing

A group was told that people in another room were wearing masks.

More likely to wear masks properly and show disapproval for those who weren’t.

Supports internalisation

ISI S Jenness

Estimating how many jelly beans in a jar

Subjects taken into a room and talked about their estimations to come up with a group estimate

Conformity happened - Low guessers raised their estimate, high guessers lowered their estimates.

No objective answer so there is cognitive uncertainty.

Increases validity as they wanted to be right

ISI W Individual differences

Perrin and Spencer

Replicated Asch’s study using engineering and chemistry students.

Near-0 rate of conformity out of 396 trials.

They didn’t look to others for guidance as they trusted their own judgement

Suggests that ISI cannot be considered a universal explanation as it ignores personal characteristics.