Conformity and Obedience

CHAPTER 6: CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Explore the power of others to influence behaviors.

  • Define conformity.

  • Differentiate between informational and normative social influence.

  • Explain how informational social influence leads individuals to conform.

  • Define chameleon effect and mass hysteria.

  • Understand the negative consequences of informational social influence.

  • Explain how normative social influence leads individuals to conform.

CONFORMITY

  • Definition: Changing one's behavior or belief in response to explicit or implicit influence from others.

  • Quote: "Sometimes the only way to stand out is to make a complete ass of yourself." (Motifake.com).

THE POWER OF CONFORMITY

Why Do People Conform?

  1. Informational Social Influence

    • Based on the desire to be correct; individuals use others as a source of information.

    • Typically leads to private acceptance of the information provided by others.

    • Sherif (1953) Study: Norm formation study demonstrating how people estimate the distance they perceive a moving light (the autokinetic effect).

  2. Normative Social Influence

    • Based on the desire to be liked or accepted by others.

    • Typically leads to public compliance without private acceptance.

    • Asch’s (1951, 1955) Studies: Focused on line estimation tasks to observe conformity in unambiguous situations.

INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE

  • Presented with ambiguous stimuli, people's perceptions can be affected by others' input.

  • Autokinetic Effect: Experiment where participants estimated the distance a point of light moved.

    • Initial estimates were made alone, followed by group ratings.

  • Findings supported the notion that individuals conform to others' judgments when unsure.

CHAMELEON EFFECT

  • Definition: Mimicking someone else's behavior as a social influence strategy.

WHEN INFORMATIONAL CONFORMITY BACKFIRES

  • Mass hysteria: A phenomenon where suggestibility to problems spreads throughout a large group of people.

  • Emotional contagion: State where emotions are transferred through individuals in a group.

    • Wheaton, Prikhidko, & Messner (2021): Study on undergraduates during COVID-19 showed correlations with emotional contagion in relation to increased stress and anxiety levels.

    • Correlation statistics:

    • COVID-19 threat: r = 0.32

    • Depression: r = 0.12

    • Anxiety: r = 0.27

    • Stress: r = 0.29

    • OCD symptoms: r = 0.29

WHEN PEOPLE CONFORM TO INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE

  • Conditions leading to conformity:

    • The situation is ambiguous.

    • The situation is a crisis.

    • Other people are perceived as experts.

NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE

  • Definition: Influence based on the desire to be accepted by others; typically leads to public compliance.

ASCH’S (1951, 1955) STUDIES ON NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE

  • Setting: Line estimation tasks presented to groups where participants must choose which line matches a standard line.

  • Design: One real participant and six confederates.

  • Objective: Whether participants would conform to the obviously incorrect answers given by confederates.

  • Key Findings: In trials where confederates gave incorrect answers, participants conformed to group judgments.

DECREASING CONFORMITY

  • Conformity was observed across trials.

  • Graphical display indicated the percentage of participants conforming to the group's inaccurate judgments across trials.

COMPLIANCE OR ACCEPTANCE?

  • Participants in Asch's study likely displayed public compliance rather than private acceptance of the group's incorrect judgments.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR OBEDIENCE

  • Understand the concept of obedience.

  • Explore Milgram’s obedience study.

  • Summarize the reasoning behind people's willingness to obey authority.

OBEDIENCE

  • Definition: A person changes their behavior due to direct orders from an authority figure.

MILGRAM’S STUDY ON OBEDIENCE

  • Shock Levels: Participants believed they were administering shocks of increasing intensity to a learner (a confederate).

    • Shock levels ranged from:

    • Slight: 15-60 volts

    • Moderate: 75-120 volts

    • Strong: 135-180 volts

    • Very strong: 195-240 volts

    • Intense: 250-300 volts

    • Extreme intensity: 315-360 volts

    • Danger: severe: 375-420 volts

    • XXX: 435-450 volts

  • Roles:

    • Learner: Confederate/actor receiving shocks.

    • Teacher: Participant administering shocks.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF MILGRAM’S STUDY

  • Discussion points regarding the ethics of the study and potential changes that could improve the study's ethical considerations.

PERCENTAGE OF PARTICIPANTS STILL OBEDIENT

  • Graph displaying the percentage of participants who remained obedient throughout the experiment based on the intensity of shocks administered:

    • Summary of participants' responses to shocks as intensity increased.

    • Notable finding: Approximately 63% of participants fully obeyed.

VARIATIONS ON MILGRAM’S STUDY

  • Comparison of different scenarios and their effect on obedience:

    • Baseline experiment showed 63% obedience.

    • Office in Bridgeport, CT: 47% obedience.

    • Victim in the same room as participant: 40% obedience.

    • Participant must touch the victim: 30% obedience.

    • Experimenter out of the room: 19% obedience.

    • An ordinary person in charge: 18% obedience.

    • Two confederates rebel against experimenter: 10% obedience.

FACTORS AFFECTING OBEDIENCE

  • Victim's emotional distance and level of depersonalization.

  • Closeness and legitimacy of authority figure.

  • Institutional authority context.

  • Liberating effects of group influence.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES ON GROUP NORMS AND CONFORMITY

  • Explore the power of norms within a group to influence individual behavior.

  • Understand factors shaping conformity based on group characteristics.

  • Recognize the power of consistency in conformity.

  • Understand the role of individual differences and cultural background in conformity.

  • Explore how gender roles and consistency impact conformity.

GROUP CHARACTERISTICS

  • Factors that impact conformity:

    • Unanimity: Influence increases when all group members agree.

    • Cohesion: Higher conformity noted in cohesive groups.

    • Status: Higher-status individuals have more influence on conformity.

CONSISTENCY AND CONFORMITY

  • Conformity is highest when responses are public and made without prior commitment.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN CONFORMITY

  • Greater conformity tendencies are observed in collectivist cultures compared to individualistic cultures.

STUDY ON INDIVIDUALISM AND LOCK-DOWN RESPONSE

  • Chen, Benedikt Frey, Presidente (2021): Study examining the effect of individualism on mobility during pandemic lockdowns.

    • Results:

    • Overall mobility decreased by 17%.

    • Mobility declines were 25% lower in more individualistic countries.

    • US data showed less mobility in individualistic counties.

    • Sample Sizing: 111 countries for study 1 and various US counties for study 2.

SOCIAL ROLES & CONFORMITY STUDY

  • Rosenfeld & Tomiyama (2021): Investigated gender differences in conformity related to eating habits and openness to vegetarianism.

    • Sample: 893 women and 813 men, mean age of 41.

    • Results on gender differences:

    • Men reported higher meat consumption than women, with notable differences per meat type:

      • Beef: 0.34

      • Pork: 0.26

      • Chicken: 0.16

    • Women showed greater openness to becoming vegetarian (37%) compared to men (30%).

EXPLANATIONS FOR GENDER DIFFERENCES

  • The degree to which men conform to gender norms and expectations influences meat consumption behavior.

  • Men who exhibit stronger masculine characteristics are more likely to eat meat.