Conformity Notes
Definition
Conformity is a form of social pressure where a person changes their behaviour and/or
beliefs in order to fit in with a social group.
Types of Conformity proposed by Deutsch and Gerard, 1955:
Normative Social Influence
AKA compliance. This is when a person conforms to a group even although they are aware
that what they are doing is wrong. This is usually when the task is unambiguous (clear what
is correct)
Asch, 1955
Mori and Arai, 2010
Key Study – Mori and Arai, 2010
In this experiment, the experimenters replicated Asch's seminal study on social conformity without
using confederates. They adapted a presentation trick in order to present two different stimuli secretly
to groups of participants to create minorities and majorities without utilizing confederates. One
hundred and four Japanese undergraduates (40 men and 64 women) carried out Asch-equivalent
tasks in same-sex groups of four. In each group, they adapted the fMORI Technique to present the
tasks such that one person (minority participant) observed different stimuli than the other three people
(majority participants). The same nine stimulus sets that Asch had used were carefully reproduced as
PowerPoint slides and projected onto a half-transparent screen. As for the critical tasks, the top part
of the standard lines appeared in either green or magenta so that two groups of participants would
see them differently when they wore two types of polarizing sunglasses that filtered either green or
magenta to make the lines appear longer or shorter. A post-experimental questionnaire confirmed that
no participant among either the minority or majority viewers noticed the presentation trick.
The results showed that, in line with Asch's basic findings, the minority women participants conformed
to the majority. However, this study produced two different results: While minority women conformed,
minority men did not. Contrary to Asch's findings, the frequency of conformity of minority participants
was almost the same regardless of whether the majority answered unanimously or not.
Informational Social Influence
This is when a person conforms because the task is ambiguous (it is not clear what is
correct). This can either be a temporary change in belief (identification) or a permanent
change (internalisation).
Jeness, 1932
Sherif, 1935
Factors which effect conformity:
Situational factors
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Normative social influence – unambiguous task but fear of ridicule may cause a
person to deviate from what they think is right. Schachter, 1951 found that if a
confederate did not conform to the group he was more likely to be rejected from the
group at a later stage.
Informational social influence – ambiguous task causes one to look to others for
guidance.
Presence of others- Asch found that if there was just one other person in the group
who disagrees with the majority the participants were less likely to conform.
(dropped from 36.8% to 5%)
Group cohesiveness – Williams and Sogon, 1984 – conformity higher when with
people you know.
Individual Factors
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Low self-esteem. Suggested by Asch, 1956
Desire for personal control. Burger and Cooper, 1979 found that those who scored
higher for desire for personal control were less likely to conform to confederates
when asked to judge how funny a cartoon was.
Gender – Eagly and Carli, 1981 – women more concerned with social relationships
and so more likely to conform. Mori and Arai, 2010 also found that women are more
likely to conform.
Zimbardo’s 1973 Stanord Prison Study found that situational factors are more influential
than individual. (See notes and Stanford Prison Experiment website).
Minority Influence
Minority influence is important in order for society to continue to change and progress.
There have been many examples of minority influence bringing about social change in
history, for example suffragette movement, Civil Rights, feminism, LGBT rights, etc.
Minority influence is when a small number within a larger group can influence the mind and
behaviour of just one person.
Dual – Process Model, Moscovici, 1980.
Attitudes are changed through 2 processes:
1. Passive compliance – conforming to the majority.
2. Conversion – Actively rethinking arguments and restructuring of thoughts.
Consistency (Moscovici et al, 1969)
4 participants and 2 confederates to name the colour of 36 slides. Confederates consistently
said that the blue slides were green. Participants agreed with the minority on 8.42% of the
trials, 32% of participants conformed at least once.
When the confederates only answered incorrectly on 24 of the 36 trials (inconsistent) the
conformity rate dropped to 1.25%.
Other factors that effect minority influence:
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Confidence (Nemeth et al, 1974)
Flexibility (Nemeth and Brilmayer, 1987). In a jury situation when one juror argued
for a set amount of compensation to be awarded they had no effect on the majority
but when that juror was willing to shift his opinion slightly there was an influence on
the majority.
Seating position (Moscovici and Nemeth, 1974) When seats were appointed no
conformity was observed but when participants could choose their seats those sitting
at the top of the table was observed to be more influential on the others.