Conformity

Conformity: Change in behavior or beliefs to agree with others.

Types of Conformity:

• Compliance: Publicly accord, privately disagree
• Obedience: Submitting to the demands of a more powerful person (unequal power relations)
• Acceptance: Both acting and believing, in accord with social pressure.

Conformity Experiments

Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation

• Experiment procedures (light distance estimate)
• In ambiguous situation, interacting groups will form norms affecting judgement and behavior
  • External norms being internalized
  • Can occur unconsciously (e.g. automatic mimicry - Chartrand & Bargh)

Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure

• Experiment procedures (line height, wrong answer)
• Need to belong (liked and accepted)

Stanley Milgram’s Study - Obedience to Authority

• Experiment procedures (teacher and ‘learner,’ experimenter instructs P to give shock)
• Factors influencing obedience:
  • Victim’s distance (further they are physically, more likely to harm them)
  • Closeness & legitimacy of authority (experimenter) (Participants less likely to deliver shock if the instructions are given on a paper)
  • Institutional Authority (Obedience went down when experiment is said to be affiliated with a made-up school)
• Dissent is not easy

Why?

Informational Social Influence: We conform because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than ours. - Need to know what’s right

People conform more when: