Conformity

Explain what is compliance (3)

• going along with the group publicly (in behaviour)

• But hold a different opinion privately

• Superficial/temporary agreement with the group

Explain what is internalisation (3)

• Private & Public agreement with the group

• Permanent change to opinion and behaviour

• Conversion to opinion of group

What type of conformity is most likely due to:

Normative social influence

Informational social influence

NSI → Compliance

ISI → Internalisation

Explain what is NSI and what it stands for

Normative social influence:

• agreeing with the majority

• we have a desire to be liked and accepted by the group

• don’t want to be rejected

Explain what is ISI and what it stands for

Informational social influence:

• agreeing with the majority

• we believe they know better/more likely to be right

• we desire to be correct

Which type of conformity involves going along with the group because we accept their beliefs and attitudes into our own cognitions

Internalisation

Which type of conformity involves going along with the group even if we do not really agree with what they are doing?

Compliance

Explain 1 results from a variation of Asch’s research that supports the influence of NSI on conformity (4)

• Asch’s private answer variation (anonymous)

• Participants “arrive late” and answer on paper

• Exposed to confederates’ answers but not to normative influence

• Conformity fell to 12.5%

Rates of conformity decreased in Asch’s conformity study in the private answer variation. Explain why this can be interpreted as showing how NSI is twice as important as ISI in explaining conformity (3)

• Answering privately eliminates NSI

• Conformity dropped around 2/3 (37% - 12.5%)

• So reasons of conformity: NSI = 2/3, while ISI = 1/3

Explain a variation of Asch’s research that supports the influence of ISI on conformity (3)

• Asch’s task difficulty variation

• Comparison lines were more similar to stimulus line

• Conformity increased with task difficulty

Explain research by Lucas that supports the influence of ISI on conformity (3)

• Lucas’ task difficulty experiments

• Participants asked maths questions in front of confederates giving wrong answers

• Conformity rates went up with question difficulty

ISI & NSI are both incomplete explanations of conformity, explain 2 reasons why (3)

• Both are partly right but incomplete, they try explain conformity as a whole

• Conformity is due to a combination of NSI and ISI (they overlap and aren’t mutually exclusive)

• They don’t include individual differences