The Power of Conformity

The Power of Conformity

• Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, which are specific rules shared by a group of individuals on how they should behave.

• People often conform to society rather than pursue their personal desires because it is easier to follow the path others have made already.

• The Asch Conformity Experiment shows that people are susceptible to conformity, with about 75% of participants conforming at least once.

• Conformity can be conscious or unconscious, with people having an intrinsic tendency to unconsciously imitate other's behaviors.

• There are two main reasons for conformity: informational influence (when people believe the group is better informed) and normative influence (when people are afraid of rejection).

• Conformity often occurs within a group of a similar age, culture, religion, or educational status, and can lead to groupthink.

• Conformity can be regarded as either good or bad, with it allowing one to learn and adopt appropriate behaviors to interact and develop within society.

• Herbert Kelman identifies three types of conformity: compliance, identification, and internalization.

• The degree of conformity is influenced by culture, gender, age, size of the group, situational factors, and different stimuli.

• Minority influence, a special case of informational influence, can resist the pressure to conform and influence the majority to accept the minority's belief or behaviors.

• Social responses to conformity can vary from conversion to anticonformity.

• Main conformity experiments include Sherif's experiment, Asch's experiment, and Milgram's Shock Experiment.Conformity: Factors that Influence Social Influence

• Humans have a tendency to seek social approval and acceptance, which is part of our nature.

• Normative influence usually results in public compliance, doing or saying something without believing in it.

• Asch's 1951 experiment found that people tend to conform to group opinions, but subsequent studies suggest that the participants were not known to each other and therefore did not pose a threat against social rejection.

• Minority influence can sometimes override conformity effects and lead to changing the majority's beliefs and behaviors.

• Gender has been found to play a role in conformity, with women being more conforming than men in group pressure situations that involve surveillance.

• Age has also been found to have an impact on conformity, with older individuals displaying less conformity when compared to younger individuals.

• The size of the group influences conformity, with accountability, attractiveness, accuracy, task difficulty, and group cohesiveness all playing a role.

• Different stimuli can also influence conformity, as demonstrated by Stanley Milgram's study using audio tones instead of lines.

• Neuroscience has found evidence for the involvement of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) in conformity, an area associated with memory and decision-making.

• The amygdala and hippocampus have also been found to be recruited when individuals participated in a social manipulation experiment involving long-term memory.

• Having similar opinions to others can generate a reward response in the brain's ventral striatum.

• Social influence can be predicted by a mathematical model using three factors: the number of people in the group, the group's strength, and immediacy.The Role of Orbitofrontal Cortex in Conformity

• The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays a role in conformity both during social influence and when participants are given the opportunity to conform later on.

• The OFC mirrors exposure to social influence when a decision is being made without the social influence being present.

• The tendency to conform is observed in the structure of the OFC, with a greater grey matter volume in high conformers.

• Research by Charpentier et al. highlights the role of the OFC in conformity.

• The OFC is responsible for decision-making and reward processing.

• The OFC receives input from other regions of the brain, including the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

• Conformity is a complex social phenomenon that involves multiple brain regions.

• The desire to conform is influenced by a variety of factors, including social norms, group identity, and status.

• The OFC may play a role in regulating social behavior and decision-making to align with social norms.

• Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying conformity can inform interventions to promote independent thinking and reduce groupthink.

• Further research is needed to fully understand the role of the OFC in conformity and its implications for social behavior.

• The study of conformity is an important area of research in social psychology and neuroscience.