Psychology; Social influence
Types and Explanations of conformity;
Confederate- people in on the study, actors, know whats going on, not real participants
Conformity- is a type of social influence involving a change in thoughts, actions or
behaviours (in response to real or imagined social pressure) in order to fit in with a group
Types of conformity;
Compliance- 'going along with others' in public, but internally or privately not changing
personal opinions- this results in only a superficial change and stops when the group
pressure stops. eg. agreeing with a group opinion that hip-hop is better than jazz when
secretly disagreeing with this
Internalisation- when a person genuinely accepts the group norms, both in public and
in private
Deutsch and Gerard's Two process theory (1955)
Informational Social Influence (ISI)
ISI argues that you conform because you want to be right
this occurs when we look to the majority group for information as we are unsure about
the way in which to behave
a person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority to be right so look to
them for the rights answer
Normative Social Influence(NSI)
NSI argues you conform because you want to be liked
this occurs when we wish to be liked by the majority group, so we go along with them
even though we may not agree with them
this is just following the crowd in order to fit in with the norm and can be liked by the
group
Asch's Research (1951) - both isi and nsi
aim- how conformity can happen in groups
participants asked to compare 3 comparison lines with the standard line and asked to
match them with it
out of the three, one was the same length and the other lines were clearly wrong
participants- 123 American male undergraduate students
, each naive participant was tested individually within a group of 6-8 confederates
naive participants were not aware that the other participants were confederates
a trial is defined as one occasion identifying the length of a standard line
first few trials confederates gave the right answers but then were instructed to give the
same wrong answers
findings- naive participants gave a wrong answer on average 36.8% of the time
overall 25% did not conform on any trial which means that 75% conformed at least once
Asch effect - used to describe the result
when participants were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid social
rejection
Variations 1955:
changed- group size, unanimity and task difficulty
group size- ranged from 1-15 confederates - leading to a change in level of conformity
1 confederate- real participants conformed on just 3% of the critical trials
2 confederates- real participants conformed on just 12.8% of the critical trials
3 confederates- real participants conformed on just 32% of the critical trials (same as the
original study %)
15 confederates- slightly dropped to 29% - possible suspicion of the experiment
unanimity- in the variation one confederate was instructed to always give the correct
answer- rate of conformity 5%- real participant had support for his belief
other variation- one confederate gave a different incorrect answer- conformity 9%
task difficulty- one variation the difference in the lines was smaller- conformity
increased
Milgram's Obedience Study (1963)
obedience- form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order
from another individual who is usually an authority figure
background;
Milgram sought to answer the q- why the german population had followed the orders of
Hitler and slaughter of jews, gypsies and members of other social groups (holocaust
during WW2)
Wanted to know;
if the german were different- were they more obedient?
how far people would ordinary people go in obeying an instruction, if it involved harming
another person?
Sample;
Types and Explanations of conformity;
Confederate- people in on the study, actors, know whats going on, not real participants
Conformity- is a type of social influence involving a change in thoughts, actions or
behaviours (in response to real or imagined social pressure) in order to fit in with a group
Types of conformity;
Compliance- 'going along with others' in public, but internally or privately not changing
personal opinions- this results in only a superficial change and stops when the group
pressure stops. eg. agreeing with a group opinion that hip-hop is better than jazz when
secretly disagreeing with this
Internalisation- when a person genuinely accepts the group norms, both in public and
in private
Deutsch and Gerard's Two process theory (1955)
Informational Social Influence (ISI)
ISI argues that you conform because you want to be right
this occurs when we look to the majority group for information as we are unsure about
the way in which to behave
a person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority to be right so look to
them for the rights answer
Normative Social Influence(NSI)
NSI argues you conform because you want to be liked
this occurs when we wish to be liked by the majority group, so we go along with them
even though we may not agree with them
this is just following the crowd in order to fit in with the norm and can be liked by the
group
Asch's Research (1951) - both isi and nsi
aim- how conformity can happen in groups
participants asked to compare 3 comparison lines with the standard line and asked to
match them with it
out of the three, one was the same length and the other lines were clearly wrong
participants- 123 American male undergraduate students
, each naive participant was tested individually within a group of 6-8 confederates
naive participants were not aware that the other participants were confederates
a trial is defined as one occasion identifying the length of a standard line
first few trials confederates gave the right answers but then were instructed to give the
same wrong answers
findings- naive participants gave a wrong answer on average 36.8% of the time
overall 25% did not conform on any trial which means that 75% conformed at least once
Asch effect - used to describe the result
when participants were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid social
rejection
Variations 1955:
changed- group size, unanimity and task difficulty
group size- ranged from 1-15 confederates - leading to a change in level of conformity
1 confederate- real participants conformed on just 3% of the critical trials
2 confederates- real participants conformed on just 12.8% of the critical trials
3 confederates- real participants conformed on just 32% of the critical trials (same as the
original study %)
15 confederates- slightly dropped to 29% - possible suspicion of the experiment
unanimity- in the variation one confederate was instructed to always give the correct
answer- rate of conformity 5%- real participant had support for his belief
other variation- one confederate gave a different incorrect answer- conformity 9%
task difficulty- one variation the difference in the lines was smaller- conformity
increased
Milgram's Obedience Study (1963)
obedience- form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order
from another individual who is usually an authority figure
background;
Milgram sought to answer the q- why the german population had followed the orders of
Hitler and slaughter of jews, gypsies and members of other social groups (holocaust
during WW2)
Wanted to know;
if the german were different- were they more obedient?
how far people would ordinary people go in obeying an instruction, if it involved harming
another person?
Sample;
