Asch’s Conformity Studies Social Influence Asch’s Conformity Studies

Asch’s Study of Conformity

Asch’s Conformity Study

Asch’s Results About 1/3 of the participants conformed. 70% conformed at least once.

Social Influence PUBLIC CONFORMITY Normative Social Influence *being sensitive to social norms *influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval PRIVATE CONFORMITY Informational Social Influence *influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality; expert

Social Influence Here, the naïve individual (#6) display obvious concern about the majority’s erroneous judgment.

Social Influence Conformity increases when: *one is made to feel incompetent or insecure *the group is unanimous *one admires the group’s status and attractiveness *one has made no prior commitment to any response *others in the group observe one’s behavior *one’s culture strongly encourages respect for social standards (individualistic vs. collectivist cultures) *difficulty & importance of decision also affect conformity rate

Social Influence Participants judged which person in Slide 2 was the same as the person in Slide 1 Difficult judgments Easy judgments Conformity highest on important judgments Low High Importance 50% 40 30 20 10 Percentage of conformity to confederates’ wrong answers When the task was unimportant, people conformed about 1/3 of the time. When the task appeared important, people rarely conformed when the task was easy, but conformed half the time when the task was difficult. Baron, Vandello & Brunsman (1996) p.705

Conformity: The Chameleon Effect Humans are natural mimics. Unconsciously mimicking others’ expressions, postures, and voice tones helps us feel what they are feeling.

Social Influence The chameleon effect Participant Participant rubs face shakes foot Confederate rubs face Confederate shakes foot 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 Number of times When with a face-rubbing and foot-shaking confederate, participants tended to likewise rub their face or shake their foot. Chartrand & Bargh, 1999