1. Conformity, Compliance and Obedience
Chapter 7
Conformity, Compliance and Obedience

2. Conformity
Tendency to change perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are consistent with group norms.
Do humans imitate one another automatically, without thought, effort, or conflict?

3. The Early Classics
Sherif’s study (1936)
Asch’s study (1951)

4. What Did Asch’s Participants Do?
Participants went along with the clearly incorrect majority 37% of the time.
However, 25% of the participants NEVER conformed.
Still, 50% conformed for at least half of the critical presentations.
The rest conformed on an occasional basis.

5. Why Do People Conform?
Informational Influence: People conform because they believe others are correct in their judgments.
Normative Influence: People conform because they fear the consequences of appearing deviant.

6. Types of Conformity
Private Conformity: Changes in both overt behavior and beliefs.
Public Conformity: Superficial change in overt behavior only.

7. Majority Influence: Group Size
Conformity increases with group size -- but only up to a point (5).
Why?
Law of “diminishing returns”?
Perception that others are either in “collusion” or “spineless sheep”?

8. Why does having an ally reduce majority influence on our behavior?
Majority Influence: Having an Ally in Dissent (influence of the minority).
When there was an ally in Asch’s study, conformity dropped by almost 80%.
Why does having an ally reduce majority influence on our behavior?
Substantially more difficult to stand alone for one’s convictions than when one is part of even a tiny minority.
Any dissent can reduce the normative pressures to conform.

9. Culture and Conformity
Cultures differ in the extent to which people adhere to social norms.
What determines whether a culture becomes individualistic or collectivistic?
The complexity of the society
The affluence of the society
The heterogeneity of the society

10. Compliance
Changes in behavior that are elicited by direct requests.

11. Mindlessness and Compliance
Talking fast and catching people off guard can improve compliance rates.
People can be disarmed by the simple phrasing of the request.
How you ask for something can be more important than what you ask for.
Langer: We often respond mindlessly to words without fully processing the information they are supposed to convey.
Mindlessness can make us more vulnerable to compliance, but can also have opposite effect

12. Norm of Reciprocity
The powerful norm of reciprocity dictates that we treat others as they have treated us.
This norm leads us to feel obligated to repay for acts of kindness, even when unsolicited.
Norm of reciprocity is relatively short-lived.

13. Sequential Request Strategies

14. Assertiveness: When People Say No
To be able to resist the trap of compliance techniques, one must:
Be vigilant
Not feel indebted by the norm of reciprocity
Compliance techniques work smoothly only if they are hidden from view.

15. Obedience
Behavior change produced by the commands of authority

16. Milgram’s Research: Forces of Destructive Obedience
Conducted his experiments during the time that Adolph Eichmann was being tried for Nazi war crimes.
His unorthodox methods have been the subject of much ethical debate.

18. Factors that Influence Obedience
Milgram varied many factors in his research program. Without commands from an experimenter, fewer than 3% of the participants exhibited full obedience. Yet in the standard baseline condition, 65% of male and female participants followed the orders. To identify factors that might reduce this level, Milgram varied the location of the experiment, the status of the authority, the participant’s proximity to the victim, and the
presence of confederates who rebel. The effects of these variations are illustrated here.