CLASSIC STUDIES ABOUT CONFORMITY
Critically discuss the classic studies about conformity
CONFORMITY
Conformity is the act of
matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to what individuals perceive is
normal of their society or social group. This influence occurs in small groups
and society as a whole, and may result from subtle unconscious influences, or
direct and overt social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of
others, or when an individual is alone. For example, people tend to follow
social norms when eating or watching television, even when alone.
People often conform from a
desire for security within a group—typically a group of a similar age, culture,
religion, or educational status. Unwillingness to conform carries the risk of
social rejection. In this respect, conformity can be a means of avoiding
bullying or deflecting criticism from peers, though it can also reflect
suppression of personality. Conformity is often associated with adolescence and
youth culture, but strongly affects humans of all ages.
THE ASCH CONFORMITY EXPERIMENT
The Asch conformity
experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated
the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the "Asch
Paradigm". One of the pairs of cards used in the experiment. The card on
the left has the reference line and the one on the right shows the three
comparison lines.
Experiments led by
Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College asked groups of students to participate in a
"vision test". In reality, all but one of the participants were
confederates of the experimenter, and the study was really about how the
remaining student would react to the confederates' behavior.
In the basic Asch
paradigm, the participants — the real subjects and the confederates — were all
seated in a classroom. They were asked a variety of questions about the lines
such as how long is A, compare the length of A to an everyday object, which
line was longer than the other, which lines were the same length, etc. The
group was told to announce their answers to each question out loud. The
confederates always provided their answers before the study participant, and
always gave the same answer as each other. They answered a few questions
correctly but eventually began providing incorrect responses. In a control
group, with no pressure to conform to an erroneous view, only one subject out
of 35 ever gave an incorrect answer. Solomon Asch hypothesized that the
majority of people would not conform to something obviously wrong; however,
when surrounded by individuals all voicing an incorrect answer, participants
provided incorrect responses on a high proportion of the questions (32%).
Seventy-five percent of the participants gave an incorrect answer to at least
one question.
Variations of the
basic paradigm tested how many confederates were necessary to induce
conformity, examining the influence of just one confederate and as many as
fifteen confederates. Results indicate that one confederate has virtually no
influence and two confederates have only a small influence. When three or more
confederates are present, the tendency to conform is relatively stable. The
unanimity of the confederates has also been varied. When the confederates are
not unanimous in their judgment, even if only one confederate voices a
different opinion, participants are much more likely to resist the urge to
conform than when the confederates all agree. This finding illuminates the power
that even a small dissenting minority can have. Interestingly, this finding
holds whether or not the dissenting confederate gives the correct answer. As
long as the dissenting confederate gives an answer that is different from the
majority, participants are more likely to give the correct answer.
One difference
between the Asch conformity experiments and the Milgram experiment as carried
out by Stanley Milgram (also famous in social psychology) is that the subjects
of these studies attributed their performance to their own misjudgment and
"poor eyesight", while those in the Milgram experiment blamed the
experimenter in explaining their behavior. Conformity may be much less salient
than authority pressure.
SHERIF, ASCH, AND
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CONFORMITY
Sherif (1935) made use of the autokinetic effect to perform a classic
conformity study. If you look at a stationary light in an otherwise dark room
the light will appear to move, because your eyes have no other reference point.
Sherif found that a subject's reports of movement were highly influenced by
other people's estimates.
Ever here the old phrase: "Seeing is believing." Well, the
following experiment by Solomon Asch (1958) indicates the old saying is not
necessarily true. Subjects asked to indicate which of three lines was the same
length as a standard line. The judgments were very easy. If people were tested
individually almost no errors were made.
Some subjects gave their judgments in groups of seven. Six of the group members were confederates of the experimenter. The next to last person to respond was the actual subject. On the early on the early trials, everyone gave the correct answer. Then, on a prearranged trial all confederates gave the same obviously incorrect response. Subjects conformed by giving the wrong response on thirty-two percent of the test trials. Many of those people who did not conform felt the need to explain their actions to other group members.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE
EXTENT OF CONFORMITY
·
In general, the larger the number of persons who
form a unanimous majority the greater the conformity they produce.
·
High status persons produce more conformity than
low status persons.
·
Conformity is likely to be greater if you expect to
meet the other group members in the future or if the group controls resources
that you value.
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