Understanding Conformity and Social Influence

• Conformity involves altering behavior due to the real or perceived influence of others, driven mainly by informational and normative social influences.

Informational Social Influence: The Need to Know What’s “Right”

• Informational social influence arises when people view others' interpretations of ambiguous situations as a source of information, especially when accuracy is important.
• This influence can lead to private acceptance, genuinely believing others are correct, or public compliance, conforming outwardly without internal belief.
• In Sherif's autokinetic effect study (1935), individuals' judgments of light movement converged in a group setting, and Jacobs & Campbell (1961) showed persistence of these inflated estimates across generations.
• People conform to informational social influence in ambiguous or crisis situations, or when others are perceived as experts.
• Relying on others for information can be dangerous if they are misinformed, leading to the spread of inaccuracies, such as in cases of contagion or mass psychogenic illness like the dancing mania/plague.
• Resisting informational social influence involves seeking independent information and critically evaluating the legitimacy of others' interpretations relative to one's own.

Normative Social Influence: The Need to Be Accepted

• Normative social influence involves conforming to be liked and accepted by others, avoiding ridicule, punishment, or rejection.
• This often results in public compliance without private acceptance.
• Social norms are implicit or explicit rules dictating acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs within a group.
• Group members follow these norms to maintain membership.
• Asch's line judgment studies demonstrate normative influence, even when group members are strangers and the correct answer is obvious.
• Conformity declines when responses are written (private compliance) or when there is an ally who agrees with the participant.
• Brain activity during Asch's line judgment tasks shows that agreeing with the group activates visual/perceptual areas, while disagreeing activates the amygdala.
• Latané's social impact theory (1981) suggests that the strength, immediacy, and number of people in a group influence normative social influence.
• Conformity is reduced when there is unanimity of opinion in the group, for example when there is an ally present
• Women are slightly more likely to conform than men.
• Collectivistic cultures show higher rates of conformity compared to individualistic cultures.
• Social influence affects adherence to pandemic guidelines.
• Mask-wearing behavior is influenced by the behavior of those in the immediate vicinity.

Consequences of Normative Social Influence

• Perceptions of group norms can influence personal behavior, even if those perceptions are inaccurate.
• Social influence can be used to promote positive behaviors, such as charitable donations and pro-environmental actions.
• Resisting normative social influence can lead to negative consequences, such as poor treatment or punishment from the group.
• Resisting inappropriate normative social influence involves recognizing social norms, finding an ally, and gathering idiosyncrasy credits.
• Social influence shapes various aspects of daily life, including clothing choices, body image perceptions, and engagement in negative behaviors like eating disorders or steroid use.

Minority Influence: When the Few Influence the Many

• Minority influence occurs when a smaller group influences the behavior or beliefs of the majority, often through informational social influence.
• Consistency is a key factor in successful minority influence.

Compliance: Requests to Change Your Behavior

• Compliance is changing behavior in response to a direct request.
• This involves techniques such as reciprocation (door-in-the-face, that’s-not-all), and commitment/consistency (foot-in-the-door, lowballing, bait and switch, labeling).
• The door-in-the-face technique involves starting with a large request and then following up with a smaller, more reasonable one.
• The foot-in-the-door technique involves starting with a small request to gain compliance with a larger request later.
• The Bait & Switch technique involves luring customers in with an attractive offer, then switching to a less appealing one.
• Labeling involves assigning a label to someone before requesting a favor.

Obedience to Authority

• Obedience is conformity in response to commands from an authority figure.
• Milgram's classic studies demonstrated that individuals often obey authority figures even when it involves acting immorally.
• Variations in Milgram's study showed that obedience decreased when the learner was more visible or the experimenter was less present.
• Obedience decreased when a peer refused to obey, or when the authority figure left

The Role of Normative Social Influence

• Normative social influence affected obedience in Milgram's studies, with obedience decreasing when a peer refused to obey and give shocks.

The Role of Informational Social Influence

• Informational social influence in Milgram's study led to decreased obedience when the experimenter did not specify the shock level, when two experimenters disagreed, or when the authority figure was replaced by a confederate.
• Disobedience was most likely to occur at 150 volts, the first time the learner asked to be let out.
• Awareness of the power of authority figures can have a positive impact on moral reasoning.
• Obedience is not inherently bad and has evolutionary advantages for group survival.