4: Explanations for Conformity Flashcards
Two explanations for conformity
Normative Social Influence
Informational Social Influence
Outline Explanations for Conformity: Normative Social Influence
NSI explains conformity as being the result of an individual changing to a group position in order to be accepted and gain approval and not be perceived as deviant by the other members of the group.
It is based on the desire to be liked.
Human beings are a social species and have a strong need for acceptance by the majority and a fear of rejection.
This type of influence also occurs as it is rewarding to be accepted and be part of a group.
This usually involves public compliance: in a group we may ‘go along’ with the behaviour and the attitudes of others without truly believing or accepting it.
In this instance, we do not privately accept what we are publicly saying or doing.
Evaluation of Explanations for Conformity: Normative Social Influence
- Strengths
P: Evidence to support NSI from Asch’s conformity research
E: Found that, when a group of confederates unanimously gave the same incorrect answer on an unambiguous line judgement task, mean conformity rate of 37%
E: Concluded: confirmed to avoid standing out from the crowd
L: Suggests we do conform out of a desire to be liked as we will publicly conform to gain approval from the group even when we privately disagree (compliance)
E: Furthermore, when Asch repeated his study but asked ppts to write down their answer instead of say aloud, mean conformity rate fell from 37% to 12.5%. Further supports NSI as suggests conformity rates were lower as there was less fear of social disapproval and rejection since group didn’t have to hear.
Evaluation of Explanations for Conformity: Normative Social Influence
- Limitations
P: NSI may struggle to explain individual differences
E: in Asch’s OG research, although mean conformity rate of 37% there were wide variations between participants
E: 25% remained completely independent, going against the majority and giving the correct answer in all 12 critical trails, despite considerable group pressure
L: NSI doesn’t consider the personality differences between people that may make some more susceptible to NSI than others
Outline Explanations for Conformity: Informational Social Influence
ISI explains conformity as being the result of people being unsure of what to do in a situation (e.g. may not know the correct way to act) so they look to others with seemingly more information in order to identify correct behaviour.
Thus if a situation is new or ambiguous, we look to others as a source of information to help us perceive the situation accurately and reduce ambiguity.
We tend to seek guidance from people who we see as being better informed than ourselves.
It is based on the desire to be right.
This usually involves private acceptance (internalisation) - in this case people conform to the norms of others because they genuinely believe that they are right.
This can result in a change in private beliefs and attitudes, which is more likely to be permanent.
Evaluation of Explanations for Conformity: Informational Social Influence
- Strengths
P: Evidence to support from one of Asch’s variations
E: When he made the line judgement task more difficult by making the standard and comparison lines similar the conformity rate increased
E: concluded this was due to participants having less confidence in their own judgement
L: suggests we do conform in ambiguous situations because the group are seen as being better informed and we follow their lead out of a desire to be right
E: however, as Asch’s research was conducted in an artificial laboratory setting using a task that doesn’t reflect real-life conformity situations, many have questioned its ecological validity
P: Further evidence to support from Jennes study
E: Ppts given a task with no clear answer; estimating the number of jelly beams in a jar
E: Found that individual estimates moved towards the estimates of others, showing they genuinely (privately) believes these estimates, demonstrating internalisation (true conformity)
L: Supports ISI because it shows that when the answer to a task is unclear (number of jelly beans) individuals will conform to others answers in order to be right
P: Support for ISI from different, more real-to-life conformity research set-up comes from Lucas et al (2006)
E: Found that, when students were asked to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or difficult, there was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than easy
E: This was most true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor
L: Supports ISI explanation that we do conform by looking to others with seemingly more information to help us to identify correct behaviour
E: Furthermore, since this study uses a more meaningful and real-to-life task (solving maths problem), the findings can be generalised to real life conformity and the results are more ecologically valid
Differences between NSI and ISI
- NSI involves looking to others for social acceptance and approval, whereas ISI involved looking to others for guidence due to being unsure of how to behave
- NSI is based of a desire to be liked, whereas ISI is based of a desire to be right
- NSI often involves compliance (public but not private, temporary) whereas ISI often involves internalisation (public and private acceptance, permanent)
