Conformity

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Conformity
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Social Influence

• How behavior is influenced by the social
  environment and the presence of other people
• Conformity
• Obedience
• Helping Behaviors

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Conformity

• Adopting attitudes or behaviors of others because
  of pressure to do so the pressure can be real
  or imagined
• 2 general reasons for conformity
• Informational social influence refers to behavior
  that is motivated by the desire to be correct
• Normative social influencebehavior that is
  motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance
  and approval.

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Solomon Asch (1907-1996)

• Social psychologist who researched the
  circumstances under which people conform

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Aschs Experiments on Conformity

• Previous research had shown people will conform
  to others judgments more often when the evidence
  is ambiguous

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Aschs Experiments on Conformity

• All but 1 in group was confederate
• Seating was rigged
• Asked to rate which line matched a standard
  line
• Confederates were instructed to pick the wrong
  line 12/18 times

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Aschs Conformity Study
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Aschs Conformity Study
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Aschs Experiments on Conformity

• Results
• Asch found that 76 participants conformed to at
  least one wrong choice during multiple trials.
• BUT when data from all the trials was combined,
  subjects gave wrong answer (conformed) on only
  37 of the critical trials. Means that almost
  2/3 of people said correct answer even when
  others said the wrong one (did not conform)
• Control group that responded alone (no group
  present) chose correctly 99.
• Why did 1/3 of participants conform to clearly
  wrong choices?
• informational influence?
• subjects reported having doubted their own
  perceptual abilities which led to their
  conformance didnt report seeing the lines the
  way the confederates had

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Factors Increasing Conformity

• The person feels incompetent or insecure.
• The group has three or more people.
• The rest of the group is unanimous.
• The person is impressed by the status of the
  group.
• No prior commitments were made.
• The group is observing the person respond.
• Ones culture encourages conformity.

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Factors Decreasing Conformity

• When we have an ally in our dissent from majority
  opinion, even if the dissenters competence is
  questionable.

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Effects of a Nonconformist

• If everyone agrees, you are less likely to
  disagree HOWEVER
• If one person disagrees, even if they give the
  wrong answer, you are more likely to express your
  nonconforming view
• Asch tested this hypothesis
• one confederate gave different answer from others
• conformity dropped significantly

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Culture Conformity

• In general, levels of conformity have steadily
  declined since Aschs original study of U.S.
  college students in the 1950s
• Individualistic cultures tend to emphasize
  independence, self-expression, and standing out
  from the crowd thus the whole notion of
  conformity tends to carry a negative connotation
• Collectivistic cultures, however, publicly
  conforming while privately disagreeing is
  regarded as socially appropriate tact or
  sensitivity