Explanations for conformity

Informational social influence

• based on COGNITIVE factors (thought process)

• conform due to a need to be right, look to others for the right answer

• if situation is ambiguous or we believe others are experts then we will go along with them, as they have prior or specialist knowledge

• It matters who the majority is as we are likely to be influenced by people we respect or view as similar to ourselves or even an expert

• leads to internalisation

Normative social influence

• based on EMOTIONAL factors (feelings)

• conformity occurs because of a need to be accepted by others and to be part of a group

• if we conform we are rewarded with relationships and acceptance

• leads to compliance or identification

Evidence/research for Normative social influence

Bond (2005)- Compliance was stronger when participants made public responses and were face to face with majority

Normative social influence is less likely when participants were making private responses

Evidence/research for Informational social influence

Lucas (2006)- When presented with difficult maths problems most would conform to majority answer but wouldn’t with easier questions presenting how with informational social influence its due to a lack and need for information

Research +

• A strength of the Informational social influence explanation for conformity is that it has research to support its explanation

• For example Lucas, et al (2006) gave participants maths problems to solve and found that the more participants conformed to wrong answers when the questions were difficult as opposed to easier questions. Interestingly, this was especially obvious with participants who rated themselves as weaker in maths.

• This is exactly what ISI would predict because when the situation is ambiguous people look to others for the right answer and will particularly conform to people who they deem to be experts

• This suggests that participants did conform due to informational social influence, the need to be right, adding credibility to this explanation

Generalisability -

• However, an issue with the explanations of conformity is that a lot of the research is artificial and therefore cannot be generalised to real life settings

• For example in Asch’s study, participants were asked to judge the length of lines and were measured on whether they conformed to strangers. This is very different to real life conformity pressures such as fashion trends, music taste, smoking etc. which may be likely to cause a higher level of conformity due to the social importance of such choices

• Beyond this, in real life friendship groups people are typically familiar with their peers, and thus may feel more comfortable being themselves, this may mean you are more likely to behave in a manner they are used to, potentially reducing conformity

• This implies we cannot fully generalise much of the research findings into explaining conformity as each situation and setting is unique

other factors -

• One theoretical problem with either NSI or ISI explanation is that it fails to take into account individual differences

• Some people will be less confident in their beliefs and may have more need to be liked so it is impossible for us to say that everyone reacts the same to social influences like conformity

• In addition, people with an external locus of control are naturally more conformist due to their disposition

• This implies that an individual-level factor can influence conformity more than originally thought, also Asch did not research the roles of individual factors

Practical applications +

• Another strength is the practical applications of the NSI explanation

• Just being aware that we are capable of conforming in this way could help companies and organisations use the theory to alter people’s behaviour

• For example, Schultz conducted a study which looked at placing messages in hotel bathrooms asking customers to think if they needed a clean towel everyday, the messages put in bathrooms suggested that high percentages of guests were helping to save the environment by using their towel more than once

• This study shows that NSI was the most powerful explanation for conformity, as those messages that suggested other guests were using fewer bath towels were more successful

Research +

• A strength of the Normative social influence (NSI) explanation for why people conform is that there is research to support

• For example, Asch’s research showed that 37% of participants gave the same answers as the confederates

• This means that the majority of participants conformed to the wrong answer given by the confederates even when they knew it was wrong because they didn’t want to stand out. This supports the theory of NSI, as they did not want to be rejected from the group, even through they did not know them.

• This suggests that some participants conformed due to normative reasons, the need to be accepted and liked by the group