Linkenbach and Perkins, found that adolescents exposed to the simple message that the majority of their age peers did not smoke were subsequently less likely to take up smoking.
Schulz et al found that hotel guests exposed to the normative message that 75% of guests reused their towels each day, reduced their own towel use to 25%.
Aschs' Research - participants explained they conformed due to being afraid of disapproval. When Asch repeated the study but instead participants had to write down their answers, conformity rates fell to 12.5%.
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Research Support for ISI
Fein et al demonstrated how judgements of candidate performance in US presidential debates could be influenced by knowledge of others' reactions. Participants saw what was supposedly the reaction of their fellow participants on screen suring the debate. This produced large shifts in participants judgements of the candidates performance.
This demonstrates the need to be correct by the participants (on their judgement of candidates), therefore supporting the explanation of ISI for conformity.
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Individual differences in NSI
Research shows NSI does not affect everyone in the same way.
For example, people who are less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI than those who care more about being liked. These people are known as nAffiliators - have the need to be in a relationship with others.
McGhee and Teevan, found that students with a high need for affiliation were more likely to conform.
This shows the need to be liked underlies conformity for some more than others. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise NSI as the explanation of conformity to the whole population.
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