1. Conformity
Chapter Two

2. Individuality vs. Conformity
One consequence of the fact that we are social animals is that we live in a state of tension between values associated with individuality and values associated with conformity.

3. Individuality vs. Conformity
Is conformity good or bad?
To be called an individualist or a nonconformist is to be designated, by connotation, as a “good” person.
BUT, can also substitute the term “deviate”
To be called a conformist, in our culture, is somehow to be designated as an “inadequate” person.
BUT, can also substitute “team player”

4. Individuality vs. Conformity
There is an inconsistency in the way our society seems to feel about conformity and nonconformity.
Nonconformists may be praised by historians long after the fact of their nonconformity, but they are usually not held in high esteem at the time!

5. Individuality vs. Conformity
Strong support of this observation from social psychology studies:
Schachter study of “Johnny Rocco”
Kruglanski & Webster

6. Anticonformity
There is a difference between nonconformity (independence) and “anticonformity.”
Not thinking for oneself but automatically acting contrary to the desires and expectations of others

7. Conformity Hitler’s inner circle Nixon’s “palace guard”
Conformity is not always adaptive and nonconformity is not always maladaptive.
Examples:
Hitler’s inner circle
Nixon’s “palace guard”
NASA Challenger administrators
Issue of “groupthink”…

8. Groupthink
Defined as the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

9. Groupthink
Consensus seeking is so important that certain members of the group sometimes become “mindguards” - people who censor troublesome incoming information.

10. What is Conformity?
Can be defined as a change in a person’s behavior or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

11. What is Conformity? What causes people to conform to group pressure?
Questions to ponder:
What causes people to conform to group pressure?
What is the nature of the group pressure?
If there is a conformity to the opinion of others, is there a change in actual opinion or only in reported opinion?
If there is an actual change in opinion, is it permanent or transitory?

12. What is Conformity?
Asch study

13. What is Conformity? Especially in the amygdala
Asch study
Replicated many times with nearly identical results
Resisting group pressure also has been found to impact neurological activity
Especially in the amygdala

14. What is Conformity? No explicit rewards for conformity
Why did Asch’s study participants conform?
No explicit rewards for conformity
No explicit punishment for deviance

15. What is Conformity? They became convinced their opinions were wrong.
Why did Asch’s study participants conform?
TWO POSSIBILITIES:
They became convinced their opinions were wrong.
They “went along with the crowd” while inwardly believing their judgments were correct.

16. What is Conformity? Goal of being correct
Why did Asch’s study participants conform?
Simultaneously had TWO goals IN CONFLICT:
Goal of being correct
Goals of staying in the good graces of other people by living up to their expectations

17. What is Conformity? THEY are motivated by a desire to be correct.
Most people believe that:
THEY are motivated by a desire to be correct.
OTHERS are motivated by a desire to stay in the good graces of other people.
We know other people conform, but we underestimate the extent to which we can be induced to follow the group.

18. What is Conformity?
Why did Asch’s study participants conform?
When interviewed, data suggested that they were going along to get along.

19. Factors that Influence Conformity
Unanimity
Commitment
Accountability
The Person and the Culture
The Group Exerting Power

20. Factors that Influence Conformity
Unanimity
Even one alternate view will increase nonconformity.
Commitment
Prior commitment to initial judgment reduces later conformity.
Accountability
If held accountable for decisions, conformity is reduced.

21. Factors that Influence Conformity
The Person and the Culture
Individuals with low self-esteem are more likely to conform.
Task-specific self-esteem is particularly influential.
Strong sense of security in a particular group reduces conformity.

22. Factors that Influence Conformity
The Person and the Culture
Conformity is higher in collectivistic societies (e.g., Japan, Norway, China) than in individualistic societies (e.g., USA, France).
Women tend to conform more than men, especially when the researcher is male and/or the task is male-oriented.

23. Factors that Influence Conformity
The Group Exerting Power
There is greater conformity if the group:
Consists of experts
Has members of high social status
Has members comparable to the individual
The appearance of authority can increase rates of compliance.
Example: Wearing a uniform

24. Factors that Influence Conformity
The Group Exerting Power
Gladwell’s: “The Tipping Point”
Conformity influenced by “connectors”

25. Belonging vs. Getting Information
People have a powerful need to belong.
Most of us will go to extreme lengths to avoid social exclusion.
We often rely on other people as a means of determining reality.
When physical reality becomes increasingly uncertain, people rely more and more on “social reality.”
This is especially true when we have faith in the expertise and trustworthiness of the model.

26. Belonging vs. Getting Information
In an ambiguous situation, other people can induce conformity by providing us with information suggestive of what people generally do in a given situation.
Example: Wasting water (O’Leary & Aronson)
Example: Littering (Cialdini, et al.)

27. Belonging vs. Getting Information
It is not always easy to distinguish between conformity induced by information and conformity induced by social fear.
Often, the behavior is identical.
The key element is the presence or absence of a punitive agent.

28. Belonging vs. Getting Information
Conformity resulting from the observation of others for the purpose of gaining information about proper behavior tends to have more powerful ramifications than conformity in the interest of being accepted or avoiding punishment.

29. Belonging vs. Getting Information
People conform to others even in assessing something as personal and idiosyncratic as the quality of their own emotions.

30. Belonging vs. Getting Information
According to William James, an emotion has both a “feeling” content and a cognitive content.
Requires both physiological arousal and a label

31. Belonging vs. Getting Information
Research by Schachter & Singer found that when physical reality was clear and explainable, participants’ emotions were not influenced by the behavior of other people.
However, when participants were experiencing a strong physiological response of unknown origin, they interpreted their own feelings depending on the behavior of other people.

32. Belonging vs. Getting Information
Haney further examined the influence of other people by looking at the death qualification procedure.

33. Responses to Social Influence
The concept of conformity can be expanded to distinguish among three kinds of responses to social influence:
Compliance
Identification
Internalization

34. Responses to Social Influence
Compliance
Describes the behavior of a person who is motivated by a desire to gain reward or avoid punishment.
Typically, behavior is only as long-lived as the promise of reward or the threat of punishment.

35. Responses to Social Influence
Identification
Describes a response to social influence brought about by an individual’s liking for or desire to be the influencer.
Differs from compliance in that we do come to believe in the opinions and values we adopt, although we do not believe in them very strongly.
This phenomenon occurs often when we encounter the opinions of people we like or admire – even relative strangers.

36. Responses to Social Influence
Internalization
Most permanent, most deeply rooted response to social influence
The motivation to internalize a particular belief is the desire to be right.
The reward for the belief is intrinsic.

37. Responses to Social Influence
Some distinguishing characteristics:
Compliance is the least enduring and has the least effect on the individual because people comply merely to gain reward or to avoid punishment.
Rewards and punishments must be ever present to be effective.

38. Responses to Social Influence
Some distinguishing characteristics:
Continuous reward or punishment is not necessary for identification.
The person with whom the individual identifies need not be present at all, as long as:
The individual remains important to you
The individual still holds the same beliefs
These beliefs are not challenged by counter-opinions that are more convincing.

39. Responses to Social Influence
Some distinguishing characteristics:
Internalization is the most permanent response to social influence because your motivation to be right is a powerful and self-sustaining force that does not depend on constant surveillance in the form of agents of reward or punishment, as does compliance, or on your continued esteem for another person or group, as does identification.

40. Responses to Social Influence
Any specific action may be due to either compliance, identification, or internalization.
Example: Obeying speed laws

41. Responses to Social Influence
Major component in each response:
Compliance = Power
Identification = Attractiveness
Internalization = Credibility

42. Responses to Social Influence
There are areas of overlap among the three categories
Some circumstances can increase the permanence of compliance and identification (e.g., secondary gain).

43. Obedience As a Form of Compliance
Milgram study on obedience

44. Obedience As a Form of Compliance
Milgram study
Replicated many times with similar results

45. Obedience As a Form of Compliance
What are the implications of Milgram’s study?
An astonishingly large proportion of people will cause pain to other people in obedience to authority.
This research also may have important counterparts in the world outside of the experimental laboratory.
Examples: Nazi Germany, My Lai, Abu Ghraib

46. Obedience As a Form of Compliance
Yet, we should be cautious about over-interpreting Milgram’s results.
There are significant differences between the lab and real-world cases.
Other important factors:
Prestige of researcher
Perceived authority of researcher
Presence of authority figure
Witnessing the suffering of others

47. Obedience As a Form of Compliance
Disobedience in the Milgram Experiments
Several people chose to defy the experimenter and refused to continue with the experiment.
Human history also contains examples of such courage.
However encouraging, acts of humanity and bravery should not blind us to the pervasiveness of our tendency to obey authority.
We harbor a myth of our personal invulnerability to obedience pressures.

48. The Uninvolved Bystander as Conformist
Not only do we find it difficult to resist pressures to hurt people, we often avoid taking action when presented with opportunities to help people.

49. The Uninvolved Bystander as Conformist
The Kitty Genovese Case
Eleanor Brady’s experience

50. The Uninvolved Bystander as Conformist
Why did bystanders fail to help?
One possible explanation concerns the existence of different norms for helping in large cities as opposed to smaller towns.

51. The Uninvolved Bystander as Conformist
Why did bystanders fail to help?
Experiments by Darley, Latane, et al suggest that nonintervention can be viewed as an act of conformity.
The fact that there are a lot of other people around, rather than increasing the likelihood that someone will help, actually decreases the likelihood that any one of them will help.
Dubbed “the bystander effect”

52. The Uninvolved Bystander as Conformist
Why did bystanders fail to help?
Additionally, if people are aware that an event is being witnessed by others, the responsibility felt by any individual is diffused.

53. The Uninvolved Bystander as Conformist
Conversely, why do bystanders help at other times?
Examples: Camping trip, subway car
Two additional factors at work:
Feeling of “common fate” or mutuality
Restricted environment

54. The Uninvolved Bystander as Conformist
How can the tendency to help be increased?
Define the situation as an emergency
Assume personal responsibility for intervening
Reduce “costs” of assistance
Increase usefulness of intervention
Strengthen the connection with the victim

55. A Note on the Ethics of Experiments
The procedures in several studies discussed raise serious ethical problems.
Two important points:
It is the responsibility of all experimenters in this field to protect the experimental participant from all harm.
Social psychologists have an ethical responsibility to society as a whole – they are obligated to use their research kills to advance knowledge and understanding of human behavior for the ultimate aim of human betterment.

56. By Feb. 20th http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/aronson10e/default.asp
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