CONFORMITY

DEFINITIO
N
• Conformity is one form of social
influence that occurs when an
individual thinks or acts like those
around them.
• An individual may be aware that they
are conforming, or this may be an
unconscious process in which their
thinking and behavior has changed
because of others influencing them.
• This is a from of social influence which
is referred to as majority influence.
If an individual goes along with a
majority view or behavior but does not
agree internally, this is usually a form
of compliance.
• Therefore, conformity may be
characterized by public compliance
rather than private acceptance and
internalization of the views or behaviors
expressed.
 FACTORS OF CONFORMITY

DISPOSIONAL FACTORS SOCIAL FACTORS

Dispositional factors are the individual or personal You conform because there are features of your
characteristics of a person that may affect how they surroundings that make you feel a stronger pressure from
behave or conform. the other people. The word 'social' means other people.
Examples: Examples:
• GROUP SIZE:
• PERSONALITY: People are more likely to adopt the behavior of others when they are in a group with three
Research has found that some personality characteristics or more other people who are behaving in a similar way.
increase the tendency to conform. These include low self- This is because they are likely to feel an increased level of pressure to fit in when more
people are behaving similarly. It might seem obvious that the more people there are in a
esteem, low status in a group as well as low IQ levels. Such group, the greater the pressure conform to the group opinion is. Asch found out that this
factors may lead to insecurity in social situations and such was true, up to a point. Asch tried his procedure with groups of varying size. With two
confederates, conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%; with three it rose to 31.8%.
individuals may assume others have a better understanding of However, adding more confederates made little difference.
how to behave. Such individuals may be more likely to look to
• ANONYMITY:
others for guidance and follow what they do so that they are When we are in public, we are aware of the potential ridicule we may face if everyone
accepted and liked. was to hear what we say or do in comparison to when we are in private.
This is because in private company, we remain anonymous from the public majority and
• EXPERTISE: so this reduces our concerns about sharing our views and others disagreeing.
A person is less likely to conform in situations where they have Being anonymous can reduce conformity as it reduces the fear or the desire to be
accepted as we are anonymous.
a high level of expertise because they are likely to be more
confident in their own opinions and experience of what to do. • TASK DIFFICULTY:
People are more likely to show a higher level of conformity when they are attempting to
This would then explain why older people are less likely to complete a more difficult task, compared to one that may be easy as the answer
conform than younger people. Through age and experience, we becomes less certain. When people find something challenging, they are more likely to
look to others to help them guide their decisions because we start doubting our own
may come to feel more certain about our own understanding judgements about the situation.
and knowledge base, so we feel less pressure to conform.
 ASCH’S CASE STUDY ON
CONFORMITY
Aim: Results:
Asch (1955) wanted to investigate to see how group • For the 12 trials with wrong answers,
pressure would cause a response to change. naiive participants gave wrong
Method: answers for 36.8% of the time.
• Participants – 123 American male students. • 25% of the participants never gave a
• Didn’t know the aims of the study (naïve participants) wrong answer, meaning rest 75%
• There were also confedereates. conformed at least once.
• Each ‘naiive’ participants were put into groups of 6-8
confederates. Conclusion:
• Naiive participant thought the confederates were • This suggests that even though the
participants as well. task had a clear answer, due to group
• The groups were shown two large cards. pressure influence, they gave the
• One with a standard line (X). answer said by the rest.
• Another with 3 comparison lines (A-B-C). • This is also called Asch effect where
• Starting from left, the men in each group had to people go to the extent to conform
answer which lines from A,B,C matched the line X.
even in an unambigous situation.
• There was a total of 18 trials.
• First few trials the confederates gave the right answer
but for 12 trials they gave the wrong answer.
 EVALUATION
Strengths:
1. It demonstrated the extent to which
people conform within social situations.
2. Lab experiment with controlled variables
that resulted in an increase in validity of
the results.
Weaknesses:
3. Only experimented on similar aged white
men, which creates a bias, resulting in the
study to lack population validity. This
means that the study was essentially
aimed at only a small part of the entire
population. He ignored factors such as
race, class and gender.
4. The experiment was unethical because
Asch basically just lied to the participants,
deliberately even, saying that this was a
vision test when it was an actual
psychological experiment. He broke ethical
guidelines like deception and protection
from harm. However, deception was
required in order to get accurate results.
 CASE STUDY – SHERIF (1935)
Aim: Result:
Sherif (1935) conducted an experiment with the aim of Sherif found that over numerous estimate trials) of
demonstrating that people conform to group norms the movement of light, the group converged to a
when they are put in an ambiguous (i.e., unclear) common estimate. The person whose estimate of
situation. movement was greatly different to the other two in
Method: the group conformed to the view of the other two.
Sherif used a lab experiment to study conformity. He Sherif said that this showed that people would always
used the autokinetic effect – this is where a small spot tend to conform. Rather than make individual
of light (projected onto a screen) in a dark room will judgments they tend to come to a group agreement.
appear to move, even though it is still (i.e., it is a visual
illusion).
It was discovered that when participants were
individually tested their estimates on how far the light Conclusion:
moved varied considerably (e.g., from 20cm to 80cm). The results show that when in an ambiguous situation
The participants were then tested in groups of three. (such as the autokinetic effect), a person will look to
Sherif manipulated the composition of the group by others (who know more / better) for guidance (i.e.,
putting together two people whose estimate of the light adopt the group norm). They want to do the right
movement when alone was very similar, and one person thing but may lack the appropriate information.
whose estimate was very different. Each person in the Observing others can provide this information. This is
group had to say aloud how far they thought the light known as informational conformity.
had moved.
 BRAINWASHIN
G
• Brainwashing, which is basically a type of
persuasion towards nonbelievers to accept
allegiance or a command, can also be linked to
conformity.
• A good example of conformity in terms of
brainwashing is a deviant “religious” group or a
cult. Most cults are found in an environment
controlled and commanded by the leader who is
essentially the authoritative figure.
• Conformity to behavioral, emotive, cognitive and
social expectations is enforced by these leaders and
inability to conform to these expectations often
leads in a punishment, mostly harmful.
• Initially, members of the cult may know what
they’re following is immoral and just wrong, but by
looking at the people surrounding them who are
going through the same thing without any
complaints, they eventually give up and are
completely brainwashed. They are made to do
terrible acts on fellow members, or vice versa.
THANK
YOU