Conformity: Types and Explanations

What is conformity?

A type of social influence which involves a person changing, adapting or taking on new behaviours as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people (to fit in).

• Could also be known as majority influence, as people tend to want to conform to larger groups

What are the 2 key ways in which people conform to the opinion of a majority, suggested by Kelman (1958)?

1. Compliance

2. Internalisation

What is compliance?

A type on conformity that involves agreeing with or behaving like a group publicly but disagreeing with or having different opinions from the group privately, e.g:

• Only eating vegetarian food with a particular group of friends, but continuing to eat meat when the group isn’t present

• Laughing at a joke which the person doesn’t find funny (and may in fact find offensive) because everyone else is laughing

- The weakest type of conformity, as it involves surface and superficial change, and ceases when someone is not with the group

What is internalisation?

A type of conformity that involves accepting and agreeing with the group publicly and privately. The change is usually permanent as the person internalises the group’s norms, e.g:

• Becoming wholly involved in the norms of a group, and renouncing former beliefs (e.g. political, religious), possibly cutting ties with people from the past

• Meeting a new group of people at college and changing personal styles, hobbies,, attitudes etc., to align with the group

- The stronger type of conformity, leading to long-term change

What are the 2 different motivations of conformity?

• Normative social influence (NSI)

• Informational social influence (ISI)

What is normative social influence (NSI)?

When an individual conforms with the majority due to the need to be liked/accepted by the group, because of fear of rejection, e.g.

• Going to church every week because that is what the group do

• Wearing black all the time because that is what the group do

• Professing to dislike a particular person because that is what the group do

What is informational social influence (ISI)?

When an individual is unsure and/or lacks knowledge about what to do or how to behave in a specific situation, they look to the group for guidance (happens more likely when someone is insecure), e.g.

• On someone's first day at work, they may look to others for cues as to how to behave in the office, where to go at lunchtime, the appropriate dress code etc.

• In a new university class, the professor sets a difficult equation to solve

  • someone unsure of the answer may listen to what others are saying and agree with their answer (even if the answer turns out to be incorrect)

What is a strength of NSI?

There’s evidence that supports it as an explanation of conformity.

• For example, Asch (1951), interviewed his participants, some said they conformed in his task because they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and were afraid of disproval. When they wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% - because giving answers privately meant there was no normative group pressure

• Shows that conformity is due to a desire not to be rejected by the group for disagreeing with them

What did Schultz et al (2008) find that further supported NSI as an explanation of conformity beyond the artificial laboratory?

They found that they were able to change the behaviour of hotel guests by using printed messages encouraging energy conservation. The messages suggesting other guests were reusing their bath towels were the most effective. This supports normative influence in the real world, because guests conformed to ‘fit in’ with the perceived group behaviour.

What is a strength of ISI?

There is research evidence to support it.

• Lucas et al. found that participants were more likely to conform to incorrect answers when solving maths problems they found difficult. This is because difficult problems create ambiguity (unclarity), meaning participants were unsure of the correct answer. As a result, they rely on others whom they believe to be correct. This shows that ISI is a valid explanation for conformity as it increased in situations where individuals lacked knowledge and wanted to be correct.

What is a counterpoint of ISI as an explanation of conformity?

It’s often unclear whether it is NSI or ISI at work in research studies and real life. For example, Asch found that conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant (someone who disagrees with the majority opinion and gives a different answer). The dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (because they provide social support), or they may reduce the power of ISI (because they provide an alternative source of social information). Both interpretations are possible, therefore, it is hard to separate ISI and NSI and both processes probably operate together in most real-world conformity situations.

What is a limitation of NSI?

It doesn’t predict conformity in every case.

• Some people are greatly concerned with being liked by others - nAffiliators - individuals who have a strong need for ‘affiliation’. (i.e. they want to relate to other people). Research by Teevan et al. (1967) found that students who were nAffiliators were more likely to conform. This shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than it does for others. There are individual differences (personality) that cannot be fully explained by one general theory of situation pressures. The implications of this is that NSI can not predict conformity in every case.

What is a limitation of both NSI and ISI?

It’s rare for them to be tested in real conditions; most research in this field is lab-based which is low in mundane realism, this reduces the extent of its external validity.