What are the two types of conformity
Compliance and internalisation
What is internalisation
Deepest level of conformity
Person changes public behaviour or attitudes and their private beliefs
Usually long term change and often result of informational social influence (ISI)
What is compliance
The shallowest form of conformity
Person changes public behaviour as response to group pressure
Is usually short term only and often the result of normative social influence (NSI)
What are the two explanations for conformity
NSI and ISI
ISI informational social influence
Conform to gain superior knowledge or because they believe other person is more accurate
Leads to stronger form of conformity known as internalisation
People genuinely change their public behaviour and private beliefs to align with a group.
NSI Normative social influence
Desire to be accepted/liked in group
Conforming to avoid social rejection or punishment
Short term change in behaviour and typically associated with compliance
What is the experiment by Asch (1951)
purpose of the experiment - to examine wether people will conform to the majority under social pressure
Participants were 123 American male undergraduate students
Participants were tested in groups of 7–9 people
Only one participant was real; the rest were confederates
Participants were shown:
A standard line
Three comparison lines
They had to say out loud which comparison line matched the standard line.
Confederates deliberately gave the wrong answer on 12 out of 18 trials (called critical trials)
Findings - 36.8% of responses on critical trials were conforming (wrong)
75% of participants conformed at least once
25% never conformed
In a control condition (no confederates), error rate was less than 1%
Conclusion - People are willing to conform to group pressure, even when the answer is obviously incorrect.
This shows the power of majority influence.
Type of conformity - Normative Social Influence (NSI)
Participants knew the answer was wrong
They conformed to avoid rejection or embarrassment.
Variations of Asch’s Study:
Group Size - Conformity increased up to 3–4 confederates
After this, it levelled off
Unanimity
When one confederate gave the correct answer, conformity dropped to 5%
Shows importance of unanimity
Task Difficulty
When lines were more similar, conformity increased
Suggests informational social influence (ISI)
Evaluation:
Strengths -
High level of control → cause and effect
Replicable due to standardised procedure
Limitations -
Low ecological validity (artificial task)
Ethical issues – deception and potential stress
Gender bias – only males studied
Cultural bias – individualist American sample
What is Jenness study (1932)
Aim - To investigate whether discussion in a group would influence individuals’ judgements when the correct answer was unknown.
Procedure -
Participants were asked individually to estimate:
How many jelly beans were in a jar
Participants then:
Discussed their estimates as a group
Gave a second individual estimate
They were also told they could change their answer after hearing the group discussion
Results -
After the group discussion:
Individual estimates moved closer to the group average
The range of answers decreased
Most participants changed their original estimate
Conclusion
People conformed because they believed the group was more likely to be correct than they were.
This demonstrates Informational Social Influence (ISI) — conforming because others are seen as a source of information in an ambiguous situation.
Type of Conformity
Internalisation
Participants genuinely accepted the group’s estimate
Their private beliefs changed, not just public behaviour
Evaluation (AO3)
Strengths
High ecological validity (realistic task)
Demonstrates conformity without pressure or ridicule
Weaknesses
No control group
Lack of experimental control
Sample details are limited → low generalisability
Comparison with Asch
Jenness: Ambiguous task → ISI
Asch: Obvious answer → NSI
Who studied conformity?
Solomon Asch (1951
What was Asch’s task?
Line judgement task.
Who studied conformity?
Solomon Asch (1951)
What was Asch’s task?
Line judgement task
What did Asch find?
People conformed to incorrect group answers.
Who proposed normative social influence?
Deutsch and Gerard (1955)
Who studied social roles?
Philip Zimbardo (1973
What was the on social roles study called?
Stanford Prison Experiment.
What did it show?
People conform to roles quickly
