1. Chapter 6: Conformity & Obedience
Part 2: Feb. 23, 2015

2. Asch’s Conformity studies –
Groups of 6 (5 confederate & 1 participant)
Procedure?
How often does conformity occur?
Any reward for conforming?
Key difference betw Sherif’s and Asch’s studies?

3. Why conform? 1. Information 2. Norms
3. Distinction between private and public conformity -

4. Majority Influence 1. Influence of group size on conformity –
2. Influence of one partner in nonconformity:
What happened in Asch’s study related to this?

5. Compliance Make direct requests of us & hope we comply
Differs from conformity:
Sometimes we mindlessly comply
Langer’s experiment w/xerox machine…
Strategies for compliance?
Reciprocity norm – repay someone a favor
See also foot-in-the-door (from Ch 7) and door-in-the-face (in book)

6. Obedience Compliance through direct orders. Examples:
Milgram’s research on obedience:
Controversial set of experiments on obeying authority (1965)
1 subject, 1 confederate, 1 experimenter at Yale
Subject must ‘teach’ confederate list of words
Punishment?