Chapter 7
Conformity, Compliance and
Obedience
Conformity
• Tendency to change perceptions, opinions, or
behavior in ways that are consistent with
group norms.
• Do humans imitate one another automatically,
without thought, effort, or conflict?
The Early Classics
• Sherif’s study (1936)
• Asch’s study (1951)
What Did Asch’s Participants Do?
• Participants went along with the clearly
incorrect majority 37% of the time.
• However, 25% of the participants NEVER
conformed.
• Still, 50% conformed for at least half of the
critical presentations.
– The rest conformed on an occasional basis.
Why Do People Conform?
• Informational Influence: People conform
because they believe others are correct in
their judgments.
• Normative Influence: People conform because
they fear the consequences of appearing
deviant.
Types of Conformity
• Private Conformity: Changes in both overt
behavior and beliefs.
• Public Conformity: Superficial change in overt
behavior only.
Majority Influence: Group Size
• Conformity increases with group size -- but
only up to a point (5).
• Why?
– Law of “diminishing returns”?
– Perception that others are either in “collusion” or
“spineless sheep”?
Majority Influence:
Having an Ally in Dissent (influence of the minority).
• When there was an ally in Asch’s study,
conformity dropped by almost 80%.
• Why does having an ally reduce majority
influence on our behavior?
– Substantially 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.
Culture and Conformity
• Cultures differ in the extent to which people
adhere to social norms.
• What determines whether a culture becomes
individualistic or collectivistic?
– The complexity of the society
– The affluence of the society
– The heterogeneity of the society
Compliance
• Changes in behavior that are elicited by direct
requests.
Mindlessness and Compliance
• Talking fast and catching people off guard can
improve compliance rates.
• People can be disarmed by the simple
phrasing of the request.
– How you ask for something can be more
important than what you ask for.
– Langer: We often respond mindlessly to words
without fully processing the information they are
supposed to convey.
• Mindlessness can make us more vulnerable to
compliance, but can also have opposite effect
Norm of Reciprocity
• The powerful norm of reciprocity dictates that
we treat others as they have treated us.
– This norm leads us to feel obligated to repay for
acts of kindness, even when unsolicited.
• Norm of reciprocity is relatively short-lived.
Sequential Request Strategies
Assertiveness: When People Say No
• To be able to resist the trap of compliance
techniques, one must:
– Be vigilant
– Not feel indebted by the norm of reciprocity
• Compliance techniques work smoothly only if
they are hidden from view.
Obedience
• Behavior change produced by the commands
of authority
Milgram’s Research:
Forces of Destructive Obedience
• Conducted his experiments during the time
that Adolph Eichmann was being tried for Nazi
war crimes.
• His unorthodox methods have been the
subject of much ethical debate.
Factors that Influence Obedience