Social Influence - Conformity

Factors affecting conformity - Further research evidence Furman and Duke (1988) This study looked at how a lack of confidence affects conformity. Two sets of students, those majoring in music and those who were not, were played two versions of a piece of music and asked to state their preference in private and then in public. The Music students did not alter their decision however the non-music students did. This shows that the more confident you are the less likely you are to conform.

Eagly and Carli (1981) This study was a meta-analysis to examine whether the idea that women are more conforming than men is supported by research. They found that, although women were more likely to conform than men, the size of the difference was very small.

Perrin and Spencer (1980) This study is an exact replication of the Asc study as they believed it was a "child of its time" They found that only one out of 396 trials did an observer join the clearly wrong majority. They argue that a cultural change has happened in the value placed on conformity

Smith and Bond (1998) conducted a meta-analysis on a range of different countries and foud that the conformity rate in collectivist countries was much higher than individualists.