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Read pages x in your textbook on Social Learning Theory
Note down the four factors that Bandura says are
important for social learning.
Session 6: Conformity
Evaluate research on conformity to group
norms
Conformity: the tendency to adjust one’s
thoughts, feelings, or behavior in ways that
are in agreement with those of a particular
individual or group, or with accepted
standards about how a person should
behave in specific situations (social norms).
Watch the following videos
I want you to imagine that you are a research psychologist; which is kind of like being a detective
of social interactions.
Your job is to watch the following situations as carefully as you can so that you can try and figure
out what is going on in them, especially things which may not be immediately obvious.
As much as possible, I want you to try and imagine what it might be like to be in each situation;
hearing, seeing, and knowing only what these people do.
Make an effort to put yourself inside the mind of the individuals in the videos and to go beyond
the surface of the situations.
Try and identify what each person present might be thinking and feeling, and how these
perceptions might be influencing their choices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjP22DpYYh8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA
1.
Informational Influence
2.
Normative Influence


After watching a group, we often come to the
belief that the group has a better
understanding of the situation than we do, or
has special information or expertise.
In this situation, we conform unconsciously
because we honestly believe that the group
knows better than we do.
An individual first encounters
the group.

Information is received by the
group that is in some way
unclear or ambiguous.
The group interprets this
information.
The individual changes their
perception of what is
happening to match the group
because they believe the group
knows better
Here conformity occurs because the individual
actually believes that the group’s perceptions are
more accurate than their own. Thus, the
conformity in this case is entirely subconscious;
the person never even realises that it has
occurred.



People tend to feel extremely uncomfortable
when speaking out against a group, even when
they know that group is in the wrong.
The desire to be accepted and liked convinces
group members to keep disagreements or
uncomfortable questions to themselves.
In this situation, we conform because we want
the group to like and respect us, and we give in
to their expectations, even when we know that
they are wrong.
An individual first encounters
the group.

Information is received by the
group that is in some way
unclear or ambiguous.
The group interprets this
information.
The individual changes their
behaviourof what is happening
to match the group because
they want to be liked and
accepted.
Here, an individual will agree with and conform
to something that they know is wrong, just to fit
in. In this case, the person knows that they are
making the wrong choice, but it is more
important for the group to like them, so they go
ahead with it anyway.
Why do you think the people in the videos
conform?




People have a basic need to belong
We therefore conform to group norms to gain
the sense of belonging
Cultural norm – set of rules based on social
and cultural conventions that act as a guide
for people’s behavior (so they can conform
and belong)
Conformity is how norms are passed down
within cultures and society
1. Asch (1951) Experimental investigation of
conformity to the majority
2. Sherif (1936) Experimental investigation of
conformity to perceived group norms


Read through the article on Asch’s research
Make notes on his methodology and
evaluation points for the study
Aim: to investigate whether perceived group pressure by
a majority can influence a minority in an experimental
set up that is not ambiguous
Procedure:
 123 university students participated
 Participant told participating in a study on visual judgment
 7 males were placed around 2 white cards
 6 of them wearing suits and ties
 There was only one real participant who was naïve to the experimental
set-up
 The other 6 were confederates who had been instructed to give
unanimously incorrect answers
 One card had three lines (A, B, C) and another had one line.
 Participants were asked to say aloud which of the 3 lines on the first
card matched the single line on the second card. There were 18 trials for
each participant.
 In some of the trials, the difference between lines was hardly noticeable
and in others it was very clear
 Although confederates gave some correct answers they gave unanimous
incorrect responses were given for majority of the trials
 Also a control group of 37 participants made estimates alone for
comparison
Control group
Experimental
group
Results
 75% agreed with an incorrect
response at least once
 32% agreed with incorrect response at least
half the time
 24% never conformed
 In the control group participants made
mistakes less than 1% of the time
Results
 During the debriefing Asch asked the
participants how they felt.
 All reported experiencing some degree of self
doubt but agreed with the confederate
because they did not want to be appear to be
against the group.
 Some argue that this could also be explained
in terms of the “need to belong” – the need to
be part of the group is stronger than the
desire to give
Strengths
 A high degree of control over the variables
ensures that a cause and effect relationship
can be established between the variables.
 Results of the study have been replicated
several times which suggests that the results
are reliable
 The result of the experiment can, to some
extent, offer an explanation for why people
conform to social and cultural norms in real
life
Limitations
 Low ecological validity: laboratory tasks are artificial
and somewhat difficult to generalise to real life
situations. Critics of Asch have suggested that his
research lacks ecological validity. How often are we
faced with making a judgment like the one he used
where the answer is plain to see ? Asch replied that
he wanted to investigate a situation where the
participants could be in no doubt what the correct
answer was. In so doing he could explore the true
limits of social influence.
 The experiment was conducted in the USA with male
students as participants. There may be an issue with
the generalisability of the results. Differences in
conformity across cultures?
Limitations
 Ethics
◦ His participants did not provide fully informed consent
because they were misled about key aspects of the
experimental procedure ( e.g.. presence of
confederates).
◦ In addition, they were put in an embarrassing and
difficult position.
◦ Evidence that participants in Asch-type situations are
highly emotional was obtained by Bogdonoff et al (1961)
who found that participants in the Asch situation had
greatly increased levels of autonomic arousal. This
finding also suggests that they were in a conflict
situation, finding it hard to decide whether to report
what they saw or to conform to the opinion of others.
Limitations





Some critics thought the high levels of conformity found by Asch
were a reflection of American, 1950's culture and tell us more
about the historical and cultural climate of the USA in the 1950’s
than then they do about the phenomena of conformity.
Perrin and Spenser suggested that the Asch effect was a "child of
its time".
They carried out an exact replication of the original Asch
experiment using engineering, mathematics and chemistry
students as subjects. The results were clear-cut: on only one out
of 396 trials did an observer join the erroneous majority. They
argue that a cultural change has taken place in the value placed
on conformity and obedience and in the position of students.
However one problem in comparing these studies is that
sometimes very different types of participants are used.
Perrin and Spencer used science and engineering students who
might be expected to be more independent by training when it
came to making perceptual judgments
Limitations
 Nicholsen et al (1985) also suggest that
participants now tend to conform less in Asch
like experiments.
 This could indicate that levels of conformity
are context dependent and may change over
time.

Aim: to investigate conformity to group
norms using the autokinetic effect.
What is the autokinetic effect?
This is an optical illusion experienced when a
person is placed in a totally dark room in
which a stationary point of light appears to
move because the person’s perceptual system
has no frame of reference for it.





Sherif put subjects in a dark room and told them to watch a pinpoint of
light and report how far it moved.
Psychologists had previously discovered that a small, unmoving light in a
dark room often appeared to be moving (autokinetic effect). The
autokinetic effect is an illusion because the light does not actually move.
However, people almost always believe that it does.
Realizing that an experience that is completely "in people's heads" might
be readily influenced by suggestion, Sherif decided to study how people
were influenced by other people's opinions, in their perception of the
autokinetic effect.
First Sherif studied how subjects reacted to the autokinetic effect when
they were in a room by themselves. He found that they soon established
their own individual norms for the judgment—usually 2 to 6 inches.
In other words, when given many opportunities (trials) to judge the
movement of the light, they settled on a distance of 2-6 inches and
became consistent in making this judgment from trial to trial.
What happened when people were put into groups?
 In the next phase of the experiment, groups of subjects were put in the
dark room, 2 or 3 at a time, and asked to agree on a judgment.
 Sherif noted a tendency to compromise. People who usually made an
estimate like 6 inches soon made smaller judgments like 4 inches. Those
who saw less movement, such as 2 inches, soon increased their
judgments to about 4 inches. People changed to more resemble the
others in the group.
 Sherif's subjects were not aware of this social influence. When Sherif
asked subjects directly, "Were you influenced by the judgments of other
persons during the experiments," most denied it.
 However, when subjects were tested one at a time, later, most now
conformed to the group judgment they recently made. A subject who
previously settled on an estimate of 2 inches or 6 inches was more likely
(after the group experience) to say the light was moving about 4 inches.
These subjects had been changed by the group experience, whether they
realised it or not. They had increased their conformity to group norms.
Conclusions:
Results showed that social norms emerge to
guide behaviour when people find themselves
in uncertain situations
Strengths
 One of most influential experiments in social
psychology. It has generated a lot of research
and support.
 Study demonstrates how a group norm can
be established and continue to influence a
person’s judgment even when the social
influence is no longer present
Limitations
 The experiment was conducted in a
laboratory. Task was artificial and ambiguous
and this could influence results.
 Ethics: participants were not informed about
the purpose of the experiment though this
was not the norm at the time that this
experiment was conducted.
Discuss factors that influence conformity


The Asch study has been replicated many
times and is referred to as the Asch paradigm
Out of these replications and variations,
psychologists have found that there a
different factors that influence the likelihood
to conform to a group
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Group Size
Unanimity
Confidence
Self-Esteem
Culture

Asch (1955) made variations of original study
by altering amount of confederates
Number of Confederates
% of Participants who
Conformed
1
3%
2
14%
3
32%



Asch (1956) also tried introducing social support to the
naïve participant, either another naïve participant or a
confederate who had been instructed to go along with
naïve participant
Presence of a supporter significantly reduced errors
from 35% to around 5%.
This was particularly the case if the supporter
responded before the majority
One naïve
supporter
Participant
alone


When individuals feels that they are more
competent to make decisions with regard to a
field of expertise they are less likely to
conform.
Perrin and Spenser (1988) found that when
they replicated Asch’s study with engineers
and medical students, conformity rates were
almost nil.

Stang (1973) found that participants with
high self-esteem were less likely to conform


In the original study, culture could have
limited validity of findings as only one culture
was studied (USA).
Research has shown that there are cultural
variations in conformity
Bond & Smith (1996)



Meta-analysis of 133 studies in 17 countries on Asch
paradigm
Found higher conformity rates in collectivist cultures
compared to individualistic cultures
Level of conformity (i.e. % of incorrect answers) ranged
from 15% in an experiment with Belgian students to 58%
among Indian teachers in Fiji.
Berry (1967)

Used a variation of Asch’s conformity experiment to study
whether conformity rates among Temne in Sierra Leone in Africa
and Inuits of Baffin Island in Canada could be linked to social
norms and socialisation practices
Temne Culture
People had high conformity rates
Culture based on agriculture &
dependent on cooperation for farming
Emphasises obedience in child rearing
Inuits Culture
 Score low on conformity
 Hunters and hunt alone
 Child-rearing practices emphasize
self-reliance because its needed
within culture
Kagitcibasi (1984)






Studied socialisation patterns in 9 countries (Indonesia, South
Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA &
Germany)
20,000 interviews with parents on qualities they considered
most desirable in children
Parents from Turkey and Indonesia found it important children
obeyed them and did not emphasise independence.
Opposite was found in USA.
Parents in Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand also tended to
emphasize self-reliance rather than obedience.
Researchers suggested that in some countries, modernisation
and breakup of extended family system in some collectivist
cultures may be responsible for some of emphasis on
independence.