Majority Influence( Conformity)

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Majority Influence

• ( Conformity )
• By
• ANUPAM PANDEY
• M.Sc.,Dept. of Psychology,
• UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD

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Conformity

• Definition
• - Generally conformity means pressure to
  behave in ways that are viewed as acceptable or
  appropriate by a group or society.
• - Conformity refers to deep-seated, private
  and enduring change in behaviour and attitudes
  due to group pressure.
• - In conformity group pressure is less
  direct,than as in case of compliance and
  obedience.

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Sherifs Autokinetic Phenomenon

• Muzafer Sherif (1951) studied an interesting
  situation, known as Autokinetic Phenomenon.
  Autokinetic phenomenon refers to the fact that
  when placed in completely dark room and exposed
  to a single, stationary point of light, most
  people perceive the light as moving about.
• Participants were placed in this setting with
  several others and asked to report what they
  perceive the light to be doing. They influence
  one another and soon converge on a particular
  amount of movement that agreement, in a sense,
  constitute a group norm.

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Conti..

• If the same individuals are then placed in the
  situation alone, they continue to give estimate
  of the lights movement consistent with the group
  norms.
• This suggest that these effects reflect private
  accepatnce or commitment that they continue to
  obey the group norm even if they are no longer in
  the group.

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Aschs Experiment on Conformity

• Asch(1951,55) conducted an experiment in which
  participants task was to simply respond to a
  series of perceptual problems.
• On each of the problems, participants were to
  indicate which of three comparison lines matched
  a standard line in length. Some confederates(
  usually six to eight) were also present during
  the experiment. Their task was to answer
  unanimously by choosing the wrong line as a match
  for the standard line on certain ocassions known

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Conti..

• as critical trials( twleve out of eighteen).
  37 of the time they voiced agreement with these
  errors.
• In later studies he repeted his basic procedure
  with one important change. Instead of stating
  their answers out loud, participants wrote them
  down on a piece of paper. The conformity dropped
  sharply because they didnt have to display the
  fact that they disagreed to the other people
  present.often, it appears, we follow social norms
  overtly but dont acually change our private
  views.( Mass Clark, 1984)

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Who conforms ?

• In Aschs study, since large individual
  differences were observed in responding to
  conformity situation( 67 conformed in at least
  one trail, but 5 fully conformed on all 12
  trails).It means some personality attributes
  predispose some people to conform than others.
• Those who conform tend to have low self-esteem, a
  high need for social-support or social approval,
  a need for self-control, low IQ, high anxiety,
  feelings of self-blame and insecurity in the
  group, feelings of inferiority, feelings of
  relatively low status in the group

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Conti..

• and a generally authoriterian personality.
  (Crastanzo, 1970 Crutchfield, 1955 Elms
  Milgram, 1966).
• However, the evidence that people who conform in
  one situation do not conform in another, suggest
  that situational factors may be more important
  than personality in conformity( Barocas Gorlow,
  1967Barron, 1953 McGuire, 1968Vaughan, 1964).
• In situational factors, group size, group
  unanimity, group cohesiveness, and descriptive
  and injuctive norms are important factors which
  affect conformity.

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Factors affecting conformity

• Cohesiveness and conformity
• One factor that strongly influences our tendency
  to conform is cohesiveness- the extent to which
  we are attracted to a particular social group and
  want to belong to it.(e.g..Turner, 1991). The
  greater the cohesiveness is, the more we tend to
  follow the norms( rules) of the group.

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Conti

• Group size and conformity
• Asch(1956) and many others found that conformity
  increases with group size but only up to about
  five-seven members, and beyond that point, it
  appears to level off or even decease. But more
  recent research has failed to confirm these early
  findings concerning group size.(e.g., Bond
  Smith,1996).

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Conti..

• Group Unanimity and conformity
• Asch (1952) have found that as the unanimous
  majority increased from one person to two, to
  three, to four, to eight, to ten-fifteen,the
  conformity rate increased and then decreased
  slightly 3, 13, 33, 35, 32, 31 percent.
• Aschs original experiment employed a unanimous
  erroneous majority to obtain a conformity rate of
  33 percent. Subsequent research have shown that
  conformity is greatly reduced if the majority is
  not unanimous( Allen, 1975).

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Conti..

• Asch found that a correct supporter( response
  same as true participant) reduced conformity from
  33 to 5.5.
• Descriptive and Injuctive social norms
• Descriptive norms are ones that simply describe
  what most people do in a given situation. They
  influence behaviour by informing us about what is
  generally seen as effective or adaptivein that
  situation.

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Conti..

• In contrast, injuctive norms specify what ought
  to be done- what is approved or disapproved
  behaviour in a given situation.
• Normative focus theory( Cialdini, Reno,
  Kallgren, 1990) explains when injuctive norms
  influence behaviour. This theory suggest that
  norms will influence behaviour only to the extent
  that they are salient to the people involved at
  the time the behaviour occurs.

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Conti..

• Gender Differences
• Women are typically found to conform slightly
  more than men in conformity studies.
• However, this can generally be explained in terms
  of the conformity tasks employed- ones with which
  women have less familiarity and expertise,
  experience greater subjective uncertainty, and
  thus are influenced more than men(Eagly, 1978
  Eagly Carl, 1981 Eagly and Wood,1991 Sistrunk
  McDavid, 1971).

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Cultural differences

• In an analysed conformity study, by Smith and
  Bond (1998), it was found that conformity was
  lower among participants from individualistic
  cultures in North America, and north-western
  Europe(25.3) than among participants from
  collectivist or interdependent cultures in
  Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America(37.1).
• The higher level of conformity in collectivist
  cultures is because conformity is viewed

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Conti..

• favourably, as a form of social glue( Markus
  Kitayama, 1991).
• Although conformity is lower in individualistic
  culture, it is still remarkably high even when
  conformity has negative overtones, people find it
  difficult to resist conformity to group norms.

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Normative and informational influence

• According to most social psychologists, two
  processes of social influence are responsible for
  conformity (Kelley, 1952 Deutsch Gerard,
  1955)
• 1. Informational influence, and
• 2. Normative influence

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Informational influence

• Informational influence (the desire to be right)
  is an influence to accept information from
  another as evidence about reality. People have a
  need to feel confident that their perceptions,
  beliefs and feelings are correct. Informational
  influence comes into play when people are
  uncertain, either because stimuli are
  intrisically ambiguous or because there is social
  disagreement. Under these circumstances, people
  initially make objective tests against reality,
  but if this is not possible, they make social
  Comparison ( Festinger, 1950,54).

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Conti..

• Effective informational influence causes true
  cognitive change.
• Informational influence was probably partially
  responsible for the effects found by Sherif(1936)
  in his autokinetic studies.
• Asch (1952) found that conformity increased as
  the comparison lines were made more similar to
  one another and the judgement task thus becomes
  more difficult.

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Normative influence

• Normative influence (the desire to be liked) is
  an influence to conform to the positive
  expectations of others.
• People have a need for social approval and
  acceptance, which causes them to go along with
  the group for instrumental reasons- to cultivate
  approval and acceptance, avoid censure or
  disapproval, or achieve specific goals.

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Conti..

• Normative influence comes into play when the
  group is perceived as to have the power and
  ability to mediate rewards and punishment
  contingent on our behaviour.
• An important prediction is that one is under the
  surveillance by the group. Effective normative
  influence creates surface compliance rather than
  true cognitive change.
• Normative influence was the principal cause of
  conformity in the Aschs paradigm.

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Resisting pressures to conform

• While many factors appear to be important, three
  seem to be most important
• The need to maintain individuality
• Along with the needs to be right and to be liked,
  most of us possess a desire for individuation-
  for being distinguishable from others in some
  respect(e.g., Maslach, Santee Wade,1987).
• The need for individuation varies greatly across
  cultures.

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Conti..

• The desire for personal control
• Another reason why individuals often choose to
  resist group pressure involves their desire to
  maintain control over the events in their lives.
• The stronger individuals need for personal
  control, the less likely they are yield to social
  pressure.(Cialdini,2000).

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Conti..

• Norms that encourage individualism
• Sometimes, the norms of a specific group suggest-
  do your own thing- do it your own way . The
  kind of group that are seeking social change and
  that once emphasize the importance of individual
  preferences and choices, adopt such norms.

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• Thank you