Conformity

Conformity

• Conformity is changing your behaviour or thoughts as a result of social pressure or influence which can be either imagined or real

• Compliance is a type of conformity in which someone publicly conforms but privately maintains the same views.

• Internalisation is a type of conformity where someone both publicly and privately conforms. This means it changes their way of thinking.

• Research into compliance – Asch, 1951

  • 123 American, undergraduate males were given the unambiguous task of judging line length, tested by a pilot study where only 3 mistakes were made out of 720 trials

  • The participants were seated around a table with confederates who all said the same incorrect answer on 12 out of the 18 trials, called 'critical trials'

  • There was a mean conformity rate of 37%, 5% conformed on every trial. This shows compliance. However, 25% didn't conform on any of the trials

• Evaluation

• Laboratory Experiment → Control over extraneous variables → High internal validity

• Artificial setting and task → Cannot be generalised to real life → Lacks ecological validity

• All American, undergraduate males → Androcentric → Lacks population validity

• Deception → lack of informed consent → ethical issues

• Research into internalisation – Sherif, 1936

  • Used the Auto kinetic Effect where…