Psychology - Social influence

Conformity

Change in persons behaviour/ opinions due to real/ imagined pressure from individuals or groups.

Asch’s aim

• in 1951

• wanted to see the extent that people would conform to the opinion of others even when answer is certain

Asch’s baseline procedure

• 123 American males

• 1 naive participant in a group with 6 - 8 confederates

• Comparing line lengths to see which are same

• Naive ps always towards end of group

• answers given vocally

Asch findings

• Naive Ps agreed with confederates 36.8 % of the time

• 25 % of Ps never conformed

Asch - group size

• Varied number of confederates from 1 - 15

• Found curvilinear relationship where 3 confederates increased conformity to 31.8 % but as number increased, it leveled off.

• Sensitivity to views of others

Asch - unanimity

• Presence of another non - conforming ps

• One variation gave correct answer, another variation gave a different incorrect answer

• Naive ps conformed less in presence of dissenter

• Freed them to behave more independently

• Conformity depends on unanimity

Asch - task difficulty

• making task harder increased conformity

• more ambiguous results in looking to people for advice/ guidance that you perceive to be correct

Asch - artificiality

The task and situation are artificial.

Ps knew they were involved in a study so may have exhibited demand characteristics.

Trivial task so no reason not to conform.

Fiske says that the groups in Asch’s experiment did not represent normal groups in everyday life and so findings do not generalise.

Asch - limited application

All Asch’s participants were American men.

Women are suggested to be more conformist by research and the USA is a individualist culture. Conformity studies in collectivist cultures where social group is more important, conformity rates were higher.

Cannot be applied to many people

Asch - research support

Lucas et al - asked ps to solve easy and hard maths problems.

Ps were more likely to conform when the problems were more difficult, which gives support for task difficulty.

But, Lucas found that conformity was more complex and that Ps who were confident in maths ability were less likely to conform.

So individual factors also influence conformity.

Compliance

Superficial and temporary conformity.

Outwardly go along with majority view but privately disagree with it.

Conformity stops once group pressure stops.

Identification

Moderate conformity due to wanting to be part of a group and valuing it.

Don’t necessarily agree with everything they say.

Internalisation

When a person genuinely accepts the group norms.

Private and public change of opinion that is internalised and lasts even when the group isn’t around

Informational social influence (ISI)

Looking to who you believe has the better information because you want to be right.

Happens in new situations and also crisis situations.

A cognitive process.

Leads to a permanent change in opinion.

Normative social influence

Social norms that regulate behaviour as people want social approval.

An emotional process.

Happens in situations where people are concerned about rejection or in stressful situations where people need more social support.

Leads to a temporary change.

NSI - research support

Asch interviewed his participants and found they conformed because they felt self conscious.

When Ps wrote answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% as there was no normative group pressure.

ISI - Research support

Lucas et al - people conformed more when the maths problems were more difficult.

When the situation was ambiguous they did not want to be incorrect.

NSI & ISI - Uncertainty

It can be unclear whether NSI or ISI is at work.

E.g in Asch’s unanimity study, it is unclear whether it reduced NSI or ISI as they both provided social support and an alternative source of information.

Likely that the processes operate together.

NSI - individual differences

NSI does not always predict conformity.

Some people are so concerned by being liked by others that they are labelled ‘nAffiliators’.

These people are more likely to conform so NSI underlines conformity more for some people than others.

Cannot be generalised to everyone