Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity
The tendency to change what we do or think in response to the influence of real or imagined pressure from others.
What are the 3 types of conformity
- compliance
- internalisation
- identification
What is compliance
- agrees publicly but disagrees privately
- shallowest type of conformity (temporary)
- eg pretending to like politics cause the people in your uni room do
What is internalisation
- agree publicly and privately
- takes on the view/ opinion of others as their own
- deepest type of conformity (permanent)
- eg becoming actually interested in politics
What is identification
-elements of compliant and internalisation
-They first take on the views and opinions of others to fit in but over time they actually begin to internalise the views and opinions as their own.
-but they only conform whilst they identify with the group
-eg when Ben leaves uni he realises he didn’t actually have An interest in politics
What are the two explanations for conformity
Information social influence
Normative social influence
What is informational social influence
- conform because they want to be right
- genuinely believe that others are right and have superior knowledge
- so leads to change in private opinion (internalisation)
- ambiguous situations
What is normative social influence
- they conform to fit in and be accepted by the group
- fear of rejection
- doesn’t led to private change of opinion (compliance)
- unambiguous settings ( when answer is clear)
Sherif - study supporting informational social influence
White dot on black screen doesn’t move but appears to move
- ask people there estimates of the movement (personal norm)
- then put people in groups and asked for an estimate (group norm)
- they were influenced by the estimates of others and agreed because they thought the others were right.
- ambiguous task (no clear answer) - informational social influence
Outline ASCHS study
- on normative social influence
- 123 male students - lab experiment
- one card with one line one card with 3 lines
- asked what one of the 3 lines is the same length as the singular line
- one participant put into group of confederates who were asked to say the wrong answer
- 37% conformity rate
- 75% conformed at least once
- 25% didn’t conform at all
- interviews after and said they conformed to fit it and not be rejected (support normative social influence)
Evaluation of Aschs study
- lacks ecological validity- as its an artificial task in controlled environment hard to apply to outside world.
- lacks temporal validity- done during the Cold War where people could be arrested for acting outside the norm or standing out so may have conformed in fear of being different.
- ethically questionable- no Informed consent cause lied about purpose of study- however may have had to do so there was no demand characteristics.
Aschs variations- what are the 3 factors effecting conformity
- group size
- task difficulty
- unanimity
How does Group size effect conformity
- conformity increases as group size increases
- 1 confederate = 3% conformity
- 3 confederates = 33% conformity
Bond and smith meta analysis found conformity peaks with 4-5 confederates
How does unanimity effect conformity
The less people who agree with each other the lower conformity
- non-conformist confederate added to group - conformity dropped from 5.5% from 37%
- conformity drops when unanimity of the group is broken
How does task difficulty effect conformity
When the task is more difficult conformity increases
- situation becomes ambiguous
- supports informational social influence
Aschs study when lines were more similar conformity increased
