Conformity Flashcards
What is social influence? What are the different types of social influence and how do they vary along a continuum?
Social Influence: How people are affected by the real and imagined pressures of others.From yielding to influence - resisting influence they are:.Obedience, Compliance, Conformity, Independence, Assertiveness, Defiance
Define conformity, compliance, and obedience.
Conformity: Tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are consistent with group norms.Compliance: changes in behaviour as the result of direct requestsObedience: a form of “social influence in which a person yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure”[1] Obedience is generally distinguished from compliance, which is behavior influenced by peers, and from conformity, which is behavior intended to match that of the majority.
Describe the methods and results of Muzafer Sherif’s classic laboratory study of how norms develop in small groups.
.Took advantage of autokinetic effect, pitch black room, dot of light is stationary but appears to move and to widely varying degrees depending on the person.initially participants alone, but then brought into groups over next three days, gave responses aloud.each group seemed to converge on its own unique consensus, develop own norm
What did Sherif theorize about the relation of these results to confusion and uncertainty?
.Informational influence.because of ambiguity, participants turned to each other for guidance
What evidence emerged from related research that the influence of the group can be internalized?
.up to a year later, participants were brought back in, and people continued to give group norm!!
Discuss the seminal research conducted by Solomon Asch (1956) using a line judgment task, including the design and results of the study.
.participant placed with 6-7 other confederates in a room, asked to do a task with 99% correct answers with control group.first two trials everyone agreed, then after that, the rest of the group started to pick the wrong answer deliberately. did the participant change their answer?.75% conformed on at least one trial, 50% for at least half of trials, participants went along with incorrect majority 37% of time!.25% of participants NEVER conformed
Were the results of this research driven by informational or normative influence? How do we know? (Solomon Asch Line Task)
.normative influence, because the answer was clear to 99% of participants in control group.
Compare normative and informational influence. Explain each in the context of Sherif’s and Asch’s studies, and in relation to public and private conformity. How can we tell the difference between private and public conformity? How does motivation play a role?
.Informational Influence: People conform because they believe others are correct (b/c of ambiguous situations, use external cues like other people as info, influences internal beliefs).Sherif Autokinetic Task was ambiguous, so info influence.want to be accurate, look to others for cues on how to be accurate.Private Conformity: Person privately accepts the position taken by others (in head) (actually believes others)Normative Influence: People conform because they fear negative social consequences (clear-cut situations, external cues influence behavior, no change in INTERNAL beliefs).Solomon Asch line task was clear-cut, so norm influence.Public conformity: a superficial change in overt behavior (still doesn’t believe it themselves)
What did the social neuroscience study by Gregory Berns and others (2005) in which participants were asked to “mentally rotate” two geometric objects reveal about the neural processes involved in conformity?
.ask passey
Identify and explain each of the factors that have been shown to predict levels of conformity, including group size, awareness of norms, having an ally, and gender.
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Explain group size as it relates to affecting conformity. What is the law of diminishing returns, and how does it apply to the effects of group size?
.Group Size: conformity inc. with group size, but only up to a point, law of diminishing returns. beyond 3-4 group members, didn’t make much more of an effect on conformity, can even DECREASE if group is TOO large (if 20 people all have the EXACT same response, you might get a little suspicious, right). number of independent minds that counts
When do norms influence our behaviour? What is pluralistic ignorance? How was this illustrated in the studies by Cialdini and colleagues on littering? How did the Iron Eyes Cody public service announcement include conflicting normative messages?
.Awareness of Norms: Conform only when know about and focus on social norms, sometimes norms are ambiguous! norm most salient in our minds will influence behavior most.Pluralistic ignorance: In social psychology, pluralistic ignorance is a situation where a majority of group members privately reject a norm, but assume incorrectly that most others accept it,[1] also described as ‘no one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes.” In short, pluralistic ignorance is a bias about a social group, held by a social group.Cialdini & Littering: ppl walked down border path at amusement park to get to another part of park, it was isloated and bushes high enough couldn’t see over, manipulated how much litter on path, 0,1,2,4,8, or 16 pieces.as litter increased, so did littering.BUT, just one piece of litter had opposite effect, was salient, hey look at this one piece on this otherwise beautiful path!.Iron Eyes PSA: Indian in beautiful park, then starts wading thru litter.had injunctive norm: don’t litter!.but descriptive norm: look at how many people litter, so much that I have to wade through all this shit. makes it look normative.
Does having an ally decrease conformity? Why?
.If ally in Asch’s study (line task), conformity dropped by 80%.b/c more difficult to stand alone for one’s convictions than when one is part of even a tiny minority.any dissent can reduce the normative pressures to conform, even if just a DIFFERENT wrong answer
Differentiate between majority and minority influence. Explain how to account for the effects of minority influence, and how majorities and minorities exert pressure to affect people’s behavior.
.majorities derive power from their size, minorities from their STYLE.minorities: private acceptance from informational social influence.majorities: public compliance from normative social influence.majorities: b/c power and control, elicit public conformity thru normative pressures (but not necessarily private acceptance!!).minorities, seens as seriously committed to views, produce private conformity or conversion, more lasting.if objective issue, majority more power. if SUBJECTIVE, wider range of permissable answers, minority more influence (socially appropriate to give deviant response).minority introduces new, unexpected info to group, causes to examine issues more carefully, this careful examination may cause majority to realize minority view has merit2 views.Moscovici: Nonconformists/minorities derive power from being CONSISTENT in their dissent, don’t YIELD to influence of majority, draws mainstream attention, they must have a legit reason.Hollander: Minorities influence by accumlating idiosyncrasy credits or BROWNIE points, as in first conform, THEN dissent.either approach seems good, consistency is what is really important
Explain the relationship between culture and conformity
.certain factors affect whether culture individualistic or collectivistic: complexity, affluence, heterogeneity (multicultural).wide variety of levels of conformity across cultures, BUT HIGH CONFORMITY OVERALL regardless.is culture/society complex? specialized roles? more complex means membership in more groups, work groups, family groups, hobby groups, so less likely to conform, less pressure because doesn’t risk membership in other groups.affluence, as people prosper they gain more independence, more of their own goals and less conformity.heterogeneity, lots of diff beliefs/cultures, if homogenous instead, more pressure t conform
