Explanations of why people conform

Normative Social Influence

• Adopting beliefs as your own is called compliance even if they are not consistent with your own views
• Exerting pressure on people to conform by making it difficult to deviate from the majority
• As shown in Aschs study it is difficult to deviate from the group majority as it makes people feel uncomfortable
• normative social influence comes from people wanting to be socially accepted

Evaluation

• Bullying
• Studies showing that people with not many friends may be manipulated by a skilful bully so that many people share a same goal, creating all members in this group to comply
• Normative influence and smoking
• Marketing campaigns shwoing what is normative in a particular group have been sucessful in reducing things such as smoking and alcohol abuse
• norms bring about conformity
• strong correlation between normative beliefs and behaviours
• in a campaign aimed at 12-17 year olds in seven counties in montana, only 10% of non smokers took up smoking after hearing a message that people did not smoke. Where the message did not run, 17% took up smoking.
• Normative influence and conservation behaviour
• Using it in positive ways has been shown by hotels persuading hotel guests to reuse towels rather than having fresh ones everyday
• …