Conformity is yielding to group pressures. There are different types of conformity like normative conformity, where one yields just to fit in, and informational conformity, where one conforms due to lack of knowledge. Experiments by Solomon Asch and Sherif showed that people will often conform when in ambiguous situations or when other group members intentionally give wrong answers. Factors like group size, cultural differences, and the difficulty of the task can influence the likelihood of conformity.
2. What is Conformity?
• Conformity is simply “yielding to group pressures”. There are many
different forms of conformity.
• Examples
• A man in a crowd disagrees with the crowd, but to avoid persecution, agrees
with the crowd when asked.
• Someone does not know the answer to a question, so ends up saying what
the rest of the crowd says due to lack of knowledge.
• A student changing their clothing to fit what is expected of them by society at
a school dance.
3. Types of Conformity
• Normative Conformity – Yielding to group pressure just to fit in with the
group.
• Informational Conformity – Lack of knowledge leads someone to agree
with the group.
• Compliance – Publicly changing behavior to fit in, but privately disagreeing.
• Internalization – Publicly changing behavior to fit in, and also agreeing
privately.
• Ingratiational Conformity – Conforming to impress or gain acceptance from
others.
• Identification – Conforming to a social role.
4. Experiments regarding Conformity.
• Solomon Asch’s line experiment involving 50 male students from
Swarthmore College in a vision test. Students were tested on the
length of a line relative to another line. Participants had confederates
around them who intentionally gave wrong answers to see if the
participant would agree with them.
• The Sherif Autokinetic Effect Experiment took place in 1935 and
tested whether people will conform when in an ambiguous situation.
A small spot of light moves in a dark room even though it is not
moving. The person with an estimate greatly different than others
usually ended up conforming to the rest of the group.
5. Factors in Conforming
• The difficulty of a task – Being unable to perform a difficult task can
decrease conformity due to lack of knowledge, or increase conformity if
having multiple solutions is what the problem requires.
• Individual differences – Motivation and ability to lead can decrease
tendency to conform.
• Size of the group – The larger the group, the easier it is to conform, while if
there are less then conforming is harder.
• Characteristics of situation – People conform in ambiguous situations that
they do not know how to respond to.
• Cultural differences - Cultures that are more interdependent (East Asian
cultures) tend to conform more than individualist cultures (United States).
