Conformity:

Influencing
Behavior

It were not best that we should

all think alike; it is difference
of opinion that makes horse
races.
Mark
Twain

Conformity: When and Why

American culture stresses the importance
of not conforming.
But are we, in fact, nonconforming
creatures?
Are the decisions we make always based
on what we think, or do we sometimes use
other peoples behavior to help us decide
what to do?
.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Conformity: When and Why

Conformity
A change in ones behavior due to the real
or imagined influence of other people.

Informational Social Influence:

The Need to Know Whats Right
How should you address your psychology
professoras Dr. Berman, Professor
Berman, Ms. Berman, or Patricia?
How should you vote in the upcoming
referendum that would raise your tuition to
cover expanded student services?
Do you cut a piece of sushi or eat it whole?
Did the scream you just heard in the
hallway come from a person joking with
friends or from the victim of a mugging?

Reason why people conform

1. Informational Social Influence
The Need to Know Whats Right
The influence of other people that leads us
to conform because we see them as a
source of information to guide our
behavior.
We conform because we believe that others
interpretation of an ambiguous situation is
more correct than ours and will help us
choose an appropriate course of action.

Conformity happen by 2 situation

Private Acceptance
Conforming to other peoples behavior out of a
genuine belief that what they are doing or
saying is right.
Public Compliance
Conforming to other peoples behavior publicly
without necessarily believing in what we are
doing or saying.
People more conform because private acceptance
but public compliance happen other involved in
making decision.

The Importance of Being Accurate

The degree to which
eyewitnesses conform
to others when picking
suspects out of police
lineups depends on the
importance of the task.

Those who expected to receive $20

for accurate identification were
correct most often when alone.
However, when not alone, they sought
information from others and
conformed more regardless of
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

When Informational
Conformity Backfires
When ones personal safety is
involved, the need for information is
acuteand the behavior of others is
very informative.

Contagion
The rapid spread of emotions or
behaviors through a crowd.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

When Informational
Conformity Backfires
Mass Psychogenic Illness
The occurrence, in a group of people,
of similar physical symptoms with
no known physical cause.
In 1998, a teacher in Tennessee reported a
gasoline smell in her classroom.
The school was evacuated. Over 170 students,
teachers, and staff reported symptoms like
headaches, nausea, dizziness.
But nothing was found to be wrong in the school.
The rash of mysterious illness went away.

When Will People Conform to Informational

Social Influence?
When the situation is ambiguous.
When the situation is a crisis.
When other people are experts.

When the situation is ambiguous

Ambiguity is the most crucial variable for
determining how much people use each other as
a source of information.
When you are unsure of the correct response,
the appropriate behavior, or the right idea, you
will be most open to influence from others.
The more uncertain you are, the more you will
rely on others.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

When the situation is a crisis

In a crisis situation, we usually do not have time
to stop and think about exactly which course of
action we should take. We need to act
immediately.
If we feel scared and panicky and are uncertain
what to do, it is only natural for us to see how
other people are responding and to do likewise.
Unfortunately, the people we imitate may also
feel scared and panicky and not be behaving
rationally.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

When other people are experts.

Typically, the more expertise or knowledge a person
has, the more valuable he or she will be as a guide in
an ambiguous situation.
For example, a passenger who sees smoke coming out
of an airplane engine will probably check the flight
attendants reaction rather than their seatmates.
However, experts are not always reliable sources of
information.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Resisting
Informational Social Influence
How can we tell when other people are a good source of
information and when we should resist their definition of a
situation?
1. Remember it is possible to resist illegitimate or inaccurate
informational social influence.
2. Ask yourself critical questions:

Do other people know any more about what is going on

than I do?

Is an expert handy who should know more?

Do the actions of other people or experts seem sensible?

If I behave the way they do, will it go against my

common sense or against my internal moral compass,
my sense of right and wrong?

Reason why people conform

2. Normative Social Influence:
The Need to Be Accepted
Why do some adolescents engage in such risky
behavior?
Why does anyone follow the groups lead when the
resulting behavior is less than sensible and may
even be dangerous?
We also conform so that we will be liked and
accepted by other people.

Normative Social Influence:

The Need to Be Accepted
Social Norms
The implicit or explicit rules a group has for
the acceptable behaviors, values, and
beliefs of its members.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Normative Social Influence:

The Need to Be Accepted
We human beings are by nature a social species.
Through interactions with others, we receive
emotional support, affection, and love, and we
partake of enjoyable experiences.
Other people are extraordinarily important to our
sense of well-being.
Research on individuals who have been isolated for
long periods of time indicates that being deprived
of human contact is stressful and traumatic.

Normative Social Influence:

The Need to Be Accepted
Given this fundamental human need for social
companionship, it is not surprising that we often
conform in order to be accepted by others.
Normative Social Influence
The influence of other people that leads us to
conform in order to be liked and accepted by
them.
This type of conformity results in public
compliance with the groups beliefs and
behaviors but not necessarily private
acceptance of those beliefs and behaviors.

Conformity and Social Approval:

The Asch Line Judgment Studies
Solomon Asch (1951, 1956) had
participants guess which line in the
right box is the same length as the line
on the left. Almost everyone easily
gets this right when alone.

Conformity and Social Approval:

The Asch Line Judgment Studies
Asch had people repeatedly evaluate lines like
these, while hearing other people also
evaluate the lines.
Sometimes, though, everyone else got it wrong.
Guess how often the participants conformed
by repeating those obviously wrong answers.

76% of the participants conformed on at least one trial.

Conformity and Social Approval:

The Asch Line Judgment Studies
These are classic normative reasons for
conforming:
People know that what they are doing is
wrong but go along anyway so as not to
feel peculiar or look like a fool.
In contrast to informational social
influence, normative pressures usually
result in public compliance without private
acceptancepeople go along with the
group even if they do not believe in what
they are doing or think it is wrong.

The Importance of Being Accurate,

Revisited
What happens when it is important to
people to be accurate?
They conform less to the obviously wrong
answers of the group.
But they still conform sometimes!

The Importance of Being Accurate,

Revisited
What happens when it is important to
people to be accurate?
They conform less to the obviously wrong
answers of the group.
But they still conform sometimes!
Even when the group is wrong, the right
answer is obvious, and there are strong
incentives to be accurate, some people will
find it difficult to risk social disapproval,
even from strangers.

The Consequences of Resisting Normative Social

Influence
If you disregard the friendship norms of the group
by failing to conform to them, two things would
most likely happen:
1. First, the group would try to bring you back
into the fold, chiefly through increased
communication with you, whether long
discussions or teasing comments.(encourage
and tease)
2. If these discussions didnt work, your friends
would most likely say negative things to you
and about you, and start to withdraw from you.
(Discriminate & rejects )

Normative Social Influence

in Everyday Life
Although most of us are not slaves to fashion, we
tend to wear what is considered appropriate at a
given time.
Fads are another fairly frivolous example of
normative social influence.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND

WOMENS BODY IMAGE
A MORE SINISTER FORM OF NORMATIVE
SOCIAL INFLUENCE INVOLVES WOMENS
ATTEMPTS TO CONFORM TO CULTURAL
DEFINITIONS OF AN ATTRACTIVE BODY.
WHILE MANY, IF NOT MOST, WORLD
SOCIETIES CONSIDER PLUMPNESS IN
FEMALES ATTRACTIVE, WESTERN
CULTURE AND PARTICULARLY AMERICAN
CULTURE CURRENTLY VALUE EXTREME
THINNESS IN THE FEMALE FORM.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND

WOMENS BODY IMAGE
Standards for physical attractiveness
for Japanese women have also
undergone changes in recent
decades.
Since World War II, the preferred look
has taken on a Westernized
elementlong-legged, thin bodies or
what is called the hattou shin
beauty.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND

WOMENS BODY IMAGE
Informational social influence (The
need to know what is right) affects
how women learn what kind of body
is considered attractive at a given
time in their culture.
Women learn what an attractive
body is (and how they compare)
from family and friends and from the
media.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND

WOMENS BODY IMAGE
Crandall (1988) found that sororities
each develop their own group norms
regarding eating disorders.
Binge eating served as a form of
normative social influence.
Throughout the year, new members
conformed to their respective
sororities group norms.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Influence and

Mens Body Image
Studies conducted in the past
decade suggest that cultural norms
have changed in that men are
beginning to come under the same
pressure to achieve an ideal body
that women have experienced for
decades.
The ideal male body is now much
more muscular.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Influence and

Mens Body Image
Adolescent and young men respond
to pressure by developing strategies
to achieve the ideal, six-pack
body.
An increasing number are also using
risky substances such as steroids or
ephedrine to achieve a more
muscular physique.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

When Will People Conform to

Normative Social Influence?
Social Impact Theory
The idea that conforming to social
influence depends on:
The strength of the groups
importance,
Its immediacy, and
The number of people in the group.

When Will People Conform to

Normative Social Influence?
The more important a group is to us
and the more we are in its presence,
the more likely we will be to conform
to its normative pressures. when
the normative pressure exists
But the influence of number operates
differently.

As the size of the group increases,

each additional person has less

WHEN THE GROUP SIZE IS

THREE OR MORE
ASCH (1955) AND LATER RESEARCHERS
FOUND THAT:
CONFORMITY INCREASED AS THE NUMBER OF
PEOPLE IN THE GROUP INCREASED, BUT
ONCE THE GROUP REACHED FOUR OR FIVE
OTHER PEOPLE, CONFORMITY DOES NOT
INCREASE MUCH.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

WHEN THE GROUP IS

IMPORTANT
NORMATIVE PRESSURES ARE MUCH
STRONGER WHEN THEY COME FROM
PEOPLE WHOSE FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, AND
RESPECT, BECAUSE THERE IS A COST TO
LOSING THIS LOVE AND RESPECT.
HIGHLY COHESIVE GROUPS
CAN MAKE LESS LOGICAL
DECISIONS BECAUSE NO
ONE WANTS TO UPSET
RELATIONSHIPS.

WHEN ONE HAS NO ALLIES

IN THE GROUP
If no one else in the group expresses
agreement with your dissenting view, it
can be difficult to stick to your position.
Asch (1955) varied his experiment by
having 6 of 7 confederates pick the
wrong line instead of all 7.
Now the subject was not alone.
Conformity dropped to 6% of the trials,
as opposed to 32% when alone.

WHEN ONE HAS NO ALLIES

IN THE GROUP
The difficulty of being the lone dissenter
is apparent even in the U.S. Supreme
Court.
The most common decision ratio is
unanimous, 9-0 vote among the
Justices.
The least common decision ratio is 8-1
with a single dissenter.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

WHEN THE GROUPS CULTURE

IS COLLECTIVISTIC

STANLEY MILGRAM (1961, 1977) REPLICATED THE

ASCH STUDIES IN NORWAY AND FRANCE AND
FOUND THAT THE NORWEGIAN PARTICIPANTS
CONFORMED TO A GREATER DEGREE THAN THE
FRENCH PARTICIPANTS DID.
NORWAY HAS A MORE COLLECTIVISTIC CULTURE
THAN FRANCE.
THESE DIFFERENCES WERE OBSERVED IN OTHER
INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS AS WELL.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

GENDER DIFFERENCES
IN CONFORMITY
Eagly & Carli (1981):
META-ANALYSIS OF 145 STUDIES OF
INFLUENCEABILITY THAT INCLUDED MORE
THAN 21,000 PARTICIPANTS FOUND THAT,
ON AVERAGE, MEN ARE LESS PRONE TO
BEING INFLUENCED THAN WOMEN.
BUT THE SIZE OF THE DIFFERENCE WAS
VERY SMALL.
ONLY SLIGHTLY MORE THAN HALF OF MEN
ARE LESS INFLUENCEABLE THAN THE
AVERAGE WOMAN.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

GENDER DIFFERENCES
IN CONFORMITY
One other finding in this area is
surprising and controversial.
The gender of the person conducting
conformity studies makes a
difference too.
Eagly and Carli (1981) found that male
researchers were more likely than
female researchers to find that men
were less influenceable.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Resisting
Normative Social Influence
What can we do to resist inappropriate
normative social influence?
1. Be aware that it is operating.
2. Take action.
Try to find an ally

3. Conforming most of the time earns

an occasional deviation without
consequences.

Resisting
Normative Social Influence
Idiosyncrasy
Credits
What
can we do
to resist inappropriate
Thenormative
tolerance asocial
person
earns, over
influence?
time, by conforming to group norms;
1. Be aware that it is operating.
if enough idiosyncrasy credits are
2. earned,
Take action.
the person can, on occasion,
Try todeviantly
behave
find an ally.
without retribution
the group.
3. from
Conforming
most of the time earns

an occasional deviation without

consequences.

Minority Influence:
When the Few Influence the Many
Minority Influence
The case where a minority of group members
influence the behavior or beliefs of the majority.

The key is consistency:

People with minority views must express the
same view over time.
Different members of the minority must
agree with one another.

Using Social Influence to

Promote Beneficial Behavior
Robert Cialdini, Raymond Reno, and
Carl Kallgren have developed a
model of normative conduct in
which social norms (the rules that a
society has for acceptable
behaviors, values, and beliefs) can
be used to subtly induce people to
conform to correct, socially
approved behavior.

Using Social Influence to

Promote Beneficial Behavior
Cialdini and his colleagues (1991)
suggest that first we need to focus
on what kind of norm is operating in
the situation.
Only then can we invoke a form of
social influence that will encourage
people to conform in socially
beneficial ways.

Injunctive Norms
Peoples perceptions of what behaviors are
approved or disapproved of by others.

Descriptive Norms
Peoples perceptions of how people
actually behave in given situations,
regardless of whether the behavior is
approved or disapproved of by
others.

The Role of
Injunctive and Descriptive Norms
Establishing
norms can
influence
littering
behavior.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
Obedience is a social norm that is
valued in every culture.
You simply cant have people doing
whatever they want all the timeit
would result in chaos.
Consequently, we are socialized,
beginning as children, to obey
authority figures whom we perceive
as legitimate.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
We internalize the social norm of
obedience such that we usually obey rules
and laws even when the authority figure
isnt presentyou stop at red lights even if
the cops arent parked at the corner.
However, obedience can have extremely
serious and even tragic consequences.
People will obey the orders of an authority
figure to hurt or even kill other human
beings.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
How can we be sure that the Holocaust,
My Lai, and other mass atrocities were
not caused solely by evil, psychopathic
people but by powerful social forces
operating on people of all types?
Stanley Milgram (1963, 1974, 1976)
decided to find out, in what has become
the most famous series of studies in
social psychology.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
Imagine that you were a participant in one of Milgrams
studies.
When you arrive at the laboratory, you meet another
participant, a 47-year-old, somewhat overweight, pleasantlooking fellow.
The experimenter, wearing a white lab coat, explains that
one of you will play the role of a teacher and the other a
learner.
You draw a slip of paper out of a hat and discover that you
will be the teacher.
Your job is to teach the other participant a list of word pairs
(e.g., bluebox, niceday) and then test him on the list.
The experimenter instructs you to deliver an electric shock
to the learner whenever he makes a mistake because the
purpose of the study is to examine the effects of
punishment on learning.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
Imagine that you were a participant in one of Milgrams
studies.
The learner makes many mistakes.
The experimenter instructs you to keep shocking the
learner.
What would you do?
And how many people do you think would continue to obey
the experimenter and increase the levels of shock until
they had delivered the maximum amount, 450 volts?
Psychology majors at Yale University estimated that only
about 1% of the population would go to this extreme.
A sample of middle-class adults and a panel of
psychiatrists made similar predictions.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY
Most of Milgrams participants succumbed to
the pressure of an authority figure.
The average maximum shock delivered was
360 volts, and 62.5% of the participants went
all the way, delivering the 450-volt shock.
A full 80 percent of the participants continued
giving the shocks even after the learner cried
out seemingly in pain, saying his heart was
bothering him.
Note: No learners were harmed in the making
of Milgrams experiments. The learner was a
confederate working with Milgram, only
pretending to get shocked.

The Role of
Normative Social Influence
The obedience experiment was a
confusing situation for participants,
with competing, ambiguous
demands.
Unclear about how to define what
was going on, they followed the
orders of the expert, the authority
figure.

Other Reasons We Obey

Participants conformed to the wrong norm:
They continued to follow the obey
authority norm when it was no longer
appropriate.
It was difficult for them to abandon this
norm for three reasons:
1. The fast-paced nature of the experiment,
2. The fact that the shock levels increased
in small increments,
3. Their loss of a feeling of personal
responsibility.

6th edition

Social Psychology
Elliot Aronson
University of California, Santa Cruz

Timothy D. Wilson
University of Virginia

Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College

slides by Travis Langley

Henderson State University