Conformity - types & explanations

Conformity - types & explanations

1. Types

   • Compliance - going along with group without accepting point of view
     • No change in our underlying attitudes, only in public behaviour
   • Internalisation - going along with group as we accept their perceptions & beliefs are accurate
     • public behaviour and attitudes change
   • Identification - adopt attitude or behaviour as want to be associated with group
     • Includes both identification and compliance

2. Explanations

   • normative social influence (NSL)
     • conform to gain approval or avoid disapproval, explains compliance
     • For this to happen must believe we are under surveillance by group
   • Informational social influence (ISL)
     • Conform as we believe the majority is right, explains internalisation
     • human desire to be right means informational social influence is more likely when we are unsure how to behave

3. NSL Evaluation

   • Power of NSL supported by research on adolescent smoking
     • Linkenbach & Perkins (2003) adolescents who were told most of their peers didn't smoke were less likely to start smoking themselves
       • This supports the claim that people shape their behaviour to fit with peer group
   • Real world applications - Making people behave more responsibly
     • Nolan et al (2008) investigated whether people detected the influence of social norms on their energy conservation
       • people believed behaviour of neighbours had least effect but actually had strongest impact - people underestimate effects of NSL and rely on beliefs on what should motivate their behaviour

4. ISL Evaluation

   • ISL helps explain why social stereotypes develop
     • Wittenbrink & Henley (1996) people exposed to negative majority views about african americans later reported more negative views about black individual
       • This suggest we are influenced by others when we believe they know more about the issue
   • ISL explains how political opinions are shaped
     • Fein et al (2007) judgements about presidential candidates in a debate were influenced by how others were reacting towards them
       • this shows we are influenced by others when we believe they have more information than we do
   • ISL impact depends on judgements we're making
     • how much we're influenced depends if we're making judgements about social reality ( how fun a city is) or a physical reality (how big a city is)
       • Laughlin (1999) people more likely to be influenced when judgements have to be made about social reality
         • This supports the idea that ISL is more likely to occur when judgements are made on the basis of social consensus