Types of Conformity and Explanations for it

Conformity

A change in a person’s behaviour / opinions as a result of real or imagines pressure from others

• A form of social influence that results from exposure to majority position & leads to compliance w. that position

• Is the tendency for people to adopt behaviours, attitudes & values of other members of a reference group

Compliance

• Most superficial type of conformity

• An attitude or behaviour is adopted due to rewards or approval associated w. its adoption

  • Person conforms quickly, (tho continues to privately disagree), as hopes to achieve a favourable reaction from those around them

Identification

• Form of influence where individual adopts behaviour because they want to be associated w. a particular person or group

  • Person’s view changes publicly & privately to fit w. those expressed by group of people they admire

Internalisation

• Deepest level of conformity

• Individual accepts influence as content of attitude/behaviour proposed is consistent w. their own value system

• Private & public change of behaviour is permanent

What are the 2 explanations for conformity?

Normative social influence

Informational social influence

Informational social influence

• Person conforms due to need to be right

• Is more likely when in ‘ambiguous’ situations (we are unsure of the correct thing to say or do) or where others are experts

  • We will see what other people are doing & assume they’re correct

What type of conformity is ISI and why?

• Internalisation

• Involves changing public & private views (attitudes / behaviours)

Normative Social Influence

• People conform due to the need to be liked, accepted by & belong to a group

• Condition for this to occur is that individual believes they are under surveillance by group

What type of conformity is NSI and why?

• Compliance

• Individual conforms to the group’s views/ideas/behaviours/attitudes in public but do not necessarily internalise this view, don’t carry it into private settings nor endures over time

AD - Research Support for NSI

• Likenbach & Perkins (2003) found adolescents exposed to the message that majority of their age peers don’t smoke, were less likely to start smoking themselves

• Schultz et al (2008) found that hotel guests exposed to the normative message that ‘75% guests re-use their towel each day’ (thus being environmentally conscious), reduced their own towel use by 25%

• These studies support the claim that people shape their behaviour out of a desire to fit in w. the majority (NSI)

DIS - Individual differences in NSI

• NSI doesn’t predict conformity in every case as some people are greatly concerned w. being liked by others (aka nAffiliators (have strong need for affiliation w. other people))

• McGhee & Teevan (1967) found students who were nAffiliators were more likely to conform

• This shows that NSI influences conformity more for some people than it does others

• There are individual differences in conformity that cannot be fully explained by 1 general theory

AD - Research support for ISI

• Studies have shown how exposure to other people’s beliefs & opinions can shape many aspects of social behaviour & beliefs

• Wittenbrink & Henley (1996) found participants exposed to negative info about African Americans (which they were led to be the view of the majority) later reported more negative attitudes towards black individuals.

• (Explain and Link)

DIS- Difficulty distinguishing between 2 types of conformity

• The relationship between compliance & internalisation is complicated due to difficulties in knowing when each is actually taking place

• E.g. it is assumed a person who publicly agrees w. a majority yet disagrees w. them in private must be demonstrating compliance rather than internalisation. However, it’s possible that acceptance of group’s views has occurred publicly yet dissipates later in private

• Could be cos they have forgotten info given by group or cos they have received new info that changes their mind

• This demonstrates the difficulty in determining what is, & what is not, simple compliance rather than internalisation

DIS- Detecting NSI

• Although NSI has a powerful effect on the behaviour of the individual, it’s possible they don’t actually recognise the behaviour of others as a casual factor in their own behaviour

• Some support for this claim. Nolan et al (2008) investigated whether people detected influence of social norms on their energy conservation behaviour. When asked about what factors influenced their own energy conservation, people believed that the behaviour of neighbours had least impact on it, yet results showed it had the strongest impact

• This suggests that people rely on beliefs about what should motivate their behaviour, & so under-detect the impact of NSI