conformity

what is conformity?

a change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result pf real or imagined pressure from a person or group (aka majority influence)

what are the levels of conformity?

shallow- compliance

deep- internalisation

compliance?

• the person conforms publicly but continues to privately disagree

• superficial change

• a particular opinion stops as soon as group pressure stops

internalisation?

• genuine acceptance of group norms

• results in a change of public + private onion/behaviour

• likely to have permanent change due to attitudes being internalised

• behavioural changes remain even without the other group members (group pressure)

Deutsch and Gerard 1955

developed a two-process theory - ISI ( need to be right) + NSI (need to be liked)

informational social influence (ISI)

• about who possesses the better information

• most like to happen in new situations or when things have to be decides quickly

• more cognitive- its how you think

normative social influence (NSI)

• about norms/typical behaviour for a social group

• emotional process- could lead to temporary change in opinions (compliance)

• occurs in situations when you feel concerned about rejection

what research supports ISI?

Jenness 1932

Jenness 1932?

• students were asked to guess how many beans there were in a jar

• they discussed their estimates and had the choice to change their own 

• most pps altered their estimates to the group average 

• pps changed their answers because they believed that the group estimate was more likely to be correct

what research supports NSI?

Goldstein, Cialdini 1999

Goldstein Cialdini 1999

• hotel put notices saying to help the environment they shouldn’t wash towels everyday

• they put up another notice saying most of their guests do not wash their towels everyday

• the second notice caused less people to wash their towels everyday because they wanted to fit in

evaluation - research support