CONFORMITY

Presentation by-
Erica Khanna
Sahara Singh
Prerna Wadhwa
Tuhina Banerjee
Yukta
Ayesha Ashraf
Anvesha
Kirti Gandhi
Kunhi
Social Influence
Social Influence is the process by which an individual’s
attitude, beliefs or behaviour are modified by the presence or
actions of others.
For example the ways in which people get influence are - By
seeing others compost their organic waste after finishing a
meal may influence the subject to do so as well
Authority: People will tend to obey authority figures or
Liking: People are more easily swayed by people they like.

Anvesha Kumari
21/1861
 Conformity
Vestibulum congue

Types of
Minority
Vestibulum congue social Compliance
Vestibulum congue
Influence
influence

Obedience
Vestibulum congue
 by
WHAT IS CONFORMITY? Kirti Gandhi

Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in
with a group. This change is in response to real (involving the physical presence of others) or
imagined (involving the pressure of social norms / expectations) group pressure. Jenness
(1932) was the first psychologist to study conformity.

Conformity can be simply defined as “yielding to group pressures” (Crutchfield, 1955)

Suppose, for example, you go with friends to see a film. You didn't think the film was very
good, but all your friends thought that it was absolutely brilliant. You might be tempted to
conform by pretending to agree with their verdict on the film rather than being
the odd one out." (Eysenck, Psychology: An International Perspective, 2004)

The tendency to conform occurs in small groups and in society as a whole, and may result from
subtle unconscious influences or direct and overt social pressure. As conformity is a group
phenomenon, factors such as group size, unanimity, cohesion, status, prior commitment, and
public opinion help determine the level of conformity an individual displays.
Some examples of conformity
Whenever we meet the person, we usually greet him with the word Hello, or some other addresses. It is
the social norm, which we follow because society wants us to follow them. In case we do not greet the
person, we are assumed to be mannerless or rude.

We always stand in lines, be at a bus stop or any other place, just because other people are doing so. If
somehow we broke the queue due to any reason, we are often offended by the people around and may
get punished by the laws.

Marriage is one of the major and compulsory conformity of society. If a person at 27 years is married, have
children, home and a car is considered as a well organized and settled person in the community.

When we asked for an opinion in the class, we mostly agree with what the majority is saying. Though we
might have any other idea, we agree with the majority because we don’t want to feel different from other
students.

Adopting habits may be good or bad are also part of the conformity. Youngster mostly gets involved in
bad habits like drinking and smoking because their group mates are doing the same. People join them
because no one wants to be the one that is a goody two shoes and doesn’t join in.
COMPARING CONFORMITY WITH
COMPLIANCE AND OBEDIENCE
BY AYESHA ASHRAF
CONFORMITY COMPLIANCE OBEDIENCE
It is a type of social It is the type of social It is the type of social
influence in which there influence in which there influence in which there
is a change in behaviour is a change in behaviour is a change in behaviour
due to real or imagined due to direct requests due to the commands
influence of other from another person. of an authority figure.
people.
COMPLIANCE:
It is the first level and being the most common in everyday life, it occurs when behaviour is
in direct or indirect. And compliance is a type of conformity.
For example, if a neighbour asks you to turn down your music or someone asks you to open
a door because their hands are full.
Just as with conformity, compliance occurs because of our need to fit within social groups,
but in this case it’s about meeting specific needs rather than generally try to belong.
People make direct requests from us all the time such as salespeople, friends and family. By
helping others and anticipating their help in the future makes good social bonds.
OBEDIENCE:
Unlike conformity and compliance, obedience is behaving in a certain way to do so
without any question. The orders or instructions are given by a particular figure in
authority, someone who is assumed to be a leader or head of the group.
Obedience is practiced to avoid punishment or other unpleasant outcomes to
disobedience or ignorance of the order.
This is usually done out of fear or respect.
So in conformity, it is the group that holds the power, but in obedience , power is
concentrated in leader or influential person.
Studies on conformity

Prerna Wadhwa
21/1858
 The Early Classics -
● A Guess in the Dark :The Sherif Studies
A pioneering research was conducted by
Muzafer Sherif in 1936.In his research
individual male college students, who believed
they were participating in a visual perception
experiment, sat in a totally darkened
room.After sitting in the room a small dot of
light appeared for a period of two seconds at a
distance of 15 feet in front of them .The
participants were then asked to estimate how
far the dot of light had moved .This process was
repeated several times and most of the
participants found it very difficult to estimate
the distance as the dot of light appeared to be
moving at varying speeds .
Due to the ambiguity of this
situation the participants could not
be sure about their own judgements
and as it can see in the graph their
initial estimates varied enormously
when they were sitting alone and
were repeating their estimates to
the experimenter.Most of the
participants thought that the light
was moving 1-2 inches but one
person thought that it had moved
as much as 80 feet .The person
thought he was sitting in a
gymnasium although he was sitting
in a small room .Over the next three
days, people returned to participate
openly in three person groups.
As before, lights were flashed and the
participants, one by one, announced their
estimates. As we can see here the initial
estimates of the participants varied
considerably but participants later converged
on a common perception .Although
participants didn’t realize it, the dot of light
always remained motionless. The movement
they thought they saw was merely an optical
illusion known as the autokinetic effect: this
effect states that In darkness, a stationary
point of light appears to move, sometimes
erratically, in various directions, Sherif had
demonstrated a group norm or standard for
judging the lights .Later when the participants
were once again asked to make their
judgements alone their answers still fell within
the approximate range set by the group.
• As Plain as Day : Asch Studies
Solomon Asch wondered if conformity occurred
only in ambiguous situations such as the Sherif
study, in which people are quiet uncertain about the
correct answers .Asch tested a hypothesis which
reasoned that when people face an unambiguous
situation ,they would trust their own perceptions
and give their independent judgement, even when
every other member of the group disagreed with
them . Asch designed an experiment to test this
hypothesis in 1955 .5 male college students arrived
to take part in this study They sat around the table
and were told that they would be judging the
lengths of lines .They were shown two cards .The
first card contained only one line which was marked
as standard line ,the second card consisted of 3
lines of varying lengths .
The participants were then asked to choose
the line on the second card that was most
similar in length to the standard line on the
first card. As it can be seen in the figure, one
of the lines is exactly of the same length as
the standard line whereas the other two are
quite different from it. When the lines were
shown ,the five participants answered aloud
in the order in which they were seated and
for the first two trials their responses were
the same but in the third trial the first
participant looked carefully at the lines and
then gave an answer which was obviously
wrong (for eg A ) ,The next participant gave
the same wrong answer and so did the 3 and
the 4 participant.When it was time for the
fifth participant to respond he found himself
caught between the need to be right and the
desire to be liked.the other “participants”
were actually confederates and had been
trained to make incorrect judgments in some
trials .
Asch’s participants went along with
the incorrect majority 37 percent of
the time but not everyone conformed
About 25 percent refused to agree on
any of the incorrect group judgments.
Yet 50 percent went along on at least
half of the critical presentations and
the remaining participants
conformed on an occasional basis.
Similarly high levels of conformity
were observed when Asch’s study was
repeated 30 years later and in recent
studies involving other cognitive
tasks (Larsen, 1990; Schneider &
Watkins, 1996).
TWO TYPES OF CONFORMITY

KUNHI KUNWALI DAS

21/1862
 Conformity can be divided into

INFORMATIONAL CONFORMITY NORMATIVE CONFORMITY

 INFORMATIONAL CONFORMITY
. Informational conformity is the change in opinions or behaviour that occurs when we believe
have accurate information.

. Informational conformity is when people agree with a group because they think that the group
must know something they don't

. Think of attending your first class at a new yoga studio. You would probably look at where
others are keeping their shoes or unrolling their mats.

. Influence sometimes occurs because we believe that other people have valid knowledge about
an opinion or issue, and we use that information to help us make good decisions.
. When we take our winter coat to school because the weatherman says it's going to be cold. This
is because we think that the weatherman has some good information that we can use.

. We base our beliefs ok those presented to us by reporters, scientists, doctors and lawyers
because we believe they have more expertise in certain fields than we have.

. Informational conformity is often the end result of social comparison. The process of comparing
our opinions with those of others to gain on.

. Information conformity leads to real, long-lasting changes in beliefs. The result of informational
influence is normally private acceptance.
 NORMATIVE CONFORMITY
. People know the rest of the group is wrong but they go along anyways because they want to be
liked it don't want to be made fun of.

. This type of conformity involves changing one's behaviour in order to fit in with a group.

.Eg- A teenager might dress in a certain style because they want to look like their peers, who are
members of a particular group.

. In addition to wanting to hold correct beliefs about the world, people are motivated to be
accepted by other group members.
.The desire for social acceptance is very powerful in a wide range of situations and explains why
people are typically quite uncomfortable if they think others currently reject them or are likely to
do so in the future.

. People sometimes conform to group because they are motivated to be liked and believe that
other members will feel more kindly towards them if they conform to rather then deviate from
group names.

. In general, normative influence produces public compliance but not private acceptance.

. Another factor that increases normative influence is surveillance by other group members.
People who are concerned about others' evaluation ought to conform more when their behaviour
is public than when it is private.
When do people conform? Erica Khanna
21/932

Majority influence is one of the major factors that make people conform. As people tend to conform
when social pressure is intense and they are insecure about how to behave. There are many factors that
creates this feeling of insecurity and social pressure.

● The group size

Conformity usually increases as the size of the group increases. As the number of other people in a
majority increases, so should their impact. Actually, it isnt that simple. Asch (1956) varied the size of
groups, using one, two, three, four, eight, or fifteen confederates and he found that conformity is
increased with group size—but only up to a point. Once there were three or four confederates, the
amount of additional influence exerted by the rest was negligible. Other researchers have obtained
similar results, Beyond the presence of three or four others, additions to a group are subject to the
law of “diminishing returns” (Knowles, 1983; Mullen, 1983)

● Social norms
Social norms give rise to conformity only when we know and focus on those norms. This may sound like
an obvious point, yet we often misperceive what is normative, particularly when others are too afraid or
embarrassed to publicly present their true thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. One common example of
this “pluralistic ignorance” concerns perceptions of alcohol usage. In a number of college-wide surveys,
Deborah Prentice and Dale Miller (1996) found that most students overestimated how comfortable their
peers were with the level of drinking on campus. Those who most overestimated how others felt about
drinking at the start of the school year eventually conformed to this misperception in their own attitudes and
behavior. In contrast, students who took part in discussion sessions that were designed to correct these
misperceptions actually consumed less alcohol six months later.
 ● Cohesion
Conformity is enhanced by cohesiveness.
Cohesiveness is a “we feeling”; the extent to which members of a group are bound together, such as
by attraction to one another. The more cohesive a group is, the more power it gains over its members.
In college sororities, for example, friends tend to share binge-eating tendencies, especially as they
grow closer (Crandall, 1988). People within an ethnic group may feel a similar “own-group conformity pressure”—to
talk, act, and dress as “we” do. Another example would be that of a heterosexual arguing for gay rights would sway
heterosexuals more effectively than would a homosexual. People even comply more readily with requests from those
said to share their birthday, their first name, or features of their fingerprint (Burger & others, 2004; Silvia, 2005).

● Group unanimity
When a group is not united and even one person dissents the conformity is reduced by almost 80%. It is not regarded
whether the dissenter is highly prestigious expert or someone with low prestige or expertise. Two important
conclusions follow from this research. First, it is substantially more difficult for people to stand alone for their
convictions than to be part of even a tiny minority. Second, any dissent—whether it validates an individual’s opinion or
not— can break the spell cast by a unanimous majority and reduce the normative pressures to conform. In an
interesting possible illustration of how uncommon it is for individuals to single-handedly oppose a majority,
researchers examined voting patterns on the In sports stadiums, restaurants, and other settings, social norms influence
us when they are brought to awareness by the current or past behavior of others. U.S. Supreme Court from 1953 to 2001.
out of 4,178 decisions in which all nine justices voted, the 8 to 1 split was the least frequent, occurring in only 10 percent
of all decisions (Granberg & Barrels, 2005)
● Status
● As you might suspect, higher-status people tend to have more impact (Driskell & Mullen,
1990). Junior group members—even junior social psychologists— acknowledge more
conformity to their senior group members(Jetten & others, 2006).
● Milgram (1974) reported that in his obedience experiments, people of lower status accepted
the experimenter’s commands more readily than people of higher status. After delivering 450
volts, a 37-year-old welder turned to the higher-status experimenter and deferentially
asked, “Where do we go from here, Professor?”. Another participant, a divinity school
professor who disobeyed at 150 volts, said, “I don’t understand why the experiment is placed above this person’s life”
and plied the experimenter with questions about “the ethics of this thing”.

● Prior commitment
● Once people commit themselves to a position, they seldom yield to social pressure. Real umpires and
referees rarely reverse their initial judgments.
● Prior commitments restrain persuasion, too. When simulated juries make decisions, hung
verdicts are more likely in cases when jurors are polled by a show of hands rather than by
secret ballot (Kerr & MacCoun, 1985). Making a public commitment makes people hesitant
to back down. Smart persuaders know this. Salespeople ask questions that prompt us to
make statements for, rather than against, what they are marketing. Environmentalists
ask people to commit themselves to recycling, energy conservation, or bus riding. That’s
because behavior then changes more than when environmental appeals are heard without
inviting a commitment (Katzev & Wang, 1994).
● A prior commitment to a certain behavior or belief increases the likelihood that a person will stick with that
commitment rather than conform.
 ● Public and Private setting
People tend to conform more easily when they are out in a public setting than they would in a private setting as
they prefer not going against the group and present their views or opinions out in public when their group is
quite. People worry and get concious about being against the group, they feel the social pressure to be liked by
their group and how if they don't conform it may affect their cohesiveness of their group.
For example, students who sit quietly in classrooms even when questions are asked sometimes perform
excellently in written exams as in written form they have to present their views more privately by writing down
their answers/views.

Sitting silently in class (public setting) Excelling in exams as you have to write your
even when you have a lot of questions views/answers in a more private setting
 ● Gender differences
Based on Asch’s initial studies, social psychologists used to think that women, once considered the “weaker” sex, conform
more than men. In light of all the research, however, it appears that two additional factors have to be considered. First, sex diff
erences depend on how comfortable people are with the experimental task. Frank Sistrunk and John McDavid (1971) had male
and female participants answer questions on stereotypically masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral topics. Along with each
question, participants were told the percentage of others who agreed or disagreed. Although females conformed to the
contrived majority more on the masculine items, males conformed more on the feminine items (there were no sex diff erences
on the neutral questions). Th is fi nding suggests that one’s familiarity with the issue at hand, not gender, is what aff ects
conformity. Ask about football or video war games and most women acquiesce more than most men. Ask about family planning
and fashion design and the pattern is reversed (Eagly & Carli, 1981). A second factor is the type of social pressure people face.
As a general rule, gender diff erences are weak and unreliable. But there is an important exception: In face-to-face encounters,
where people must disagree with each other openly, small diff erences do emerge. In fact, when participants think they are
being observed, women conform more and men conform less than they do in a more private situation. Why does being “in
public” create such a divergence in behavior? Alice Eagly (1987) argues that in front of others, people worry about how they
come across and feel pressured to behave in ways that are viewed as acceptable according to traditional gender-role
constraints. At least in public, men behave with fi erce independence and autonomy, while women play a gentler, more docile
role.
WHY DO PEOPLE CONFORM?

Sahara Singh
21/891
 Historical examples of humans being conforming creatures
● The mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate cult members in 1997 under the leadership of Marshall
AppleWhite
● In 1961, American civil rights movement activists incorporating Mohandas Gandhi’s principles of
nonviolent protests into their demonstrations to end segregation.
● The My Lai massacre in 1968 during the vietnam, in which unarmed South Vietnamese civiians
were mass murdered by United States Troops.
● The humiliating abuse of Iraqi captives at the Abu Ghraib prison starting in 2003, the killing of
thousands of Iraqi civilians and the destruction of tens of thousands of houses in Fallujah in 2004,
and American soldiers urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in 2011

As these examples show, the consequences of conformity span a wide range, from bravery to tragedy.

Under strong social pressure, individuals will conform to the group even when this means doing
something immoral.
Two of the most important reasons why people conform are to be right and to be liked.

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard (1955) identified two key reasons as to why people conform
––

Normative Influence Informational Influence

The desire to be liked The desire to be correct

Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill Conform because we of the belief that others’
others’ expectations, often to gain social interpretation of an ambiguous situation is
acceptance. correct and can help us choose an appropriate
course of action.

Concern for social image and acceptance The desire to be correct produces informational
produces normative influence. influence.
Normative Influence
It stems from a desire to avoid punishments (such as going along with the rules in class even
though you don't agree with them) and gain rewards (such as behaving in a certain way in order
to get people to like you).
We often want others to accept us, like us, and treat us well. Simultaneously, we want to avoid
being teased, ridiculed, or rejected
Normative influence leads people to conform because they fear the consequences of appearing
deviant and being outcasts. As most of us know, social rejection is painful; when we deviate
from group norms, we often pay an emotional price.

EXAMPLE : When we're with our health-conscious friends, we may exaggerate our interest in
salads and fresh fish, even though we don't especially like them; when we're alone, we're more
likely to follow our personal preferences, which may be for hamburgers or tacos.
Informational Influence

When we conform because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous set of

circumstances is accurate and will help us choose an appropriate course of action it is called
Informational Influence. People change their behaviour in order to be correct.

The more we trust the group's information and value its opinions, the more likely we are to go
along with the group

The tendency to conform based on informational influence depends on two aspects of the
situation: how well informed we believe the group is and how confident we are in our own
independent judgment.

EXAMPLE : In Classroom Setting this might involve agreeing with the judgements of another
classmate who you perceive as being highly intelligent.
 Private Acceptance
Or
Private Conformity
Conforming to other people’s behavior out of a
genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is
right
Also called true acceptance or conversion, it
describes instances in which others cause us to
change not only our overt behavior but our minds as
well. To conform at this level is to be truly persuaded
that others in a group are correct.
Example : Praying and going to temples because one
genuinely believes it will change their life.
Public Compliance
Or
Public Conformity
Conforming to other people’s behavior publicly
without necessarily believing in what the other
people are doing or saying
This refers to a more superficial change in behavior.
People often respond to normative pressures by
pretending to agree even when privately they do not.
This often happens when we want to curry favor
with others.
Example : The politician who tells constituents
whatever they want to hear is a case in point.
CULTURE AND
CONFORMITY
TUHINA BANERJEE
(21/1870)
 CULTURE

● Culture differ in their unique ways and norms . We humans are a heterogeneous and diverse lot . As a
matter of geography . Some live in large , heavily populated cities while others live in small towns ,
affluent suburbs , rural farming or fishing communities , hot and humid jungles , expansive deserts ,
high altitude mountains , tropical islands , and vast arctic plains .

● Linked together by historical time and geographical space , each culture has it’s own ideology , music ,
fashions , foods , laws , customs , and manners of expression .
● Just as cultures differ in there social norms , they also differ in the extent to which
people are expected to adhere to those norms .

● There are different culture orientations towards people and their relationships to group .

● Some cultures primarily value individualism

● Some cultures primarily value collectivism

 INDIVIDUALISM
● It is a culture orientation in which self independence , autonomy and self –
reliance takes priority over group allegiances .

● Examples – Self – expression , individual thinking , personal choices .

● Early research across nations showed that autonomy and independence are most
highly valued in the United states , Australia and in Britain .
 COLLECTIVISM
● It is a cultural orientation in which interdependence , cooperation and social harmony
takes priority over personal goals .

● The person is first and foremost a loyal member of a family , team , company and state .

● Collectivist cultures are more conformist than individualistic cultures . Example – One
study showed high levels of conformity amongst Italians , and another study
demonstrated Puerto Ricans valued conformity and obedience in children .
 WHAT DETERMINES WHETHER A CULTURE
BECOMES INDIVIDUALISTIC OR COLLECTIVISTIC
?

● Speculating on the origins of these orientations . Harry Triandis suggests that

there are three key factors . The first being complexity of society .

● Complexity of society – As people come to live in more complex industrialized

society , there are more groups to identify with . It is a concept that is shared
by a range of disciplines which means less loyalty to any one group and a
greater focus on personal rather than collective goals .
● Next comes affluence of society .

● Affluence of society – As people prosper or gain financial independence a

condition that promotes social independence as well as mobility and a focus on
personal rather than collective goals.

● After that comes the last key factor heterogeneity.

● Heterogeneity – Societies that are homogeneous where members share the same
language , religion and social customs tend to be rigid and intolerant of those
who do not follow the societal norms .

● Whereas , societies that are culturally diverse where two or more culture
Coexist tend to be more permissive , thus allowing more individual
expressions . According to Edward Sampson , cultural orientation may
also be rooted in religious ideologies . Although it appears that
individuals differ even within cultures .
 DO CULTURAL ORIENTATION INFLUENCE
CONFORMITY ?
● John Berry compared participants from 17 cultures , he found that conformity rates
ranged from a low of 18 percent to a high of 60 percent . According to analysis
conformity rates are generally higher in cultures that are collectivistic rather than
individualistic .
● Example – Among African people in which deviance is scorned , 51 percent of
participants who were placed in an Asch-like study conformed . More than the
number typically seen in the United States .
USING CONFORMITY
TO CHANGE
UNHEALTHY
BEHAVIOUR:
THE CASE OF SOCIAL NORM MARKETING-Yukta mathur
Social Norm Approach

The social norms approach to behavior change combines lessons learned from a variety of
fields including social marketing, sociology, behavioral psychology and evaluation research.

● Social Norm Marketing: Social norms marketing campaigns are perhaps best
conceptualized as culture change interventions, taking more than one year to realize
the behavioral change effects.
● The approach avoids scare tactics or stigmatizing an unhealthy behavior, and instead
presents the healthy norms already existing in the community.
 Social Norm Marketing
New york times magazine awarded social norm marketing as Idea of the year.
By providing information showing that healthy behavior is, in fact, "normal," administrators
hope to influence students' attitudes and behaviors.
At the University of Arizona, an ad proclaimed, "Most U of A students. (69%) have 4 or
fewer drinks when they party."
At James Madison University (JMU), a poster advertised that 9 out of 10 JMU men stop the
first time their date says no to sexual activity.
Some schools use humor.
At Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a poster showing a gloved hand with two
fingers extended asked, "Do you want to grow up to be a proctologist?" Then the poster
asked, "Do you want to grow up to be a daily smoker?"
The poster concluded, "Most VCU students say 'no way' to both!"
At Hobart and William Smith Colleges, "campus factoids" are posted on the school's
computer network and on their computer screen-saver program.
These provide facts about the percentage of students who participate in volunteer service
or who exercise or play sports regularly.
Social Norm Marketing advertisement:
Minority Influence:
Innovation in Groups
A current controversy among social psychologists is whether the processes of majority influence
(conformity) and minority influence (innovation) are funda mentally the same or different (Forgas &
Williams, 2001).

. Pioneering work by the French psychologist Serge Moscovici (1985) has been especially important.
Researchers used an Asch-type conformity paradigm but with a majority of subjects and a minority of
confederates.

• Members of six-person groups were asked to rate the color of slides.

• In control groups of six naive participants, virtually all slides were described as blue.

• In the experimental group, however, two confederates consistently labeled the blue slides as "green."

• Participants had previously been told that all group members had normal vision, so these "green"
responses could not be attributed to color blindness.

• With this minority pressure, about a third of the participants reported seeing at least one "green" slide,
and 8 percent of all judgments indicated that slides were "green."
Research has identified other factors that determine the influence of minorities (Mackie &
Hunter, 1999).

● First, minorities are more influential when they are able to refute the majority
viewpoint effectively, by logical arguments, for instance (Clark, 1990).
● Second, minorities are more likely to succeed when the issue is not of great personal
relevance or importance to majority group members (Trost, Manss, & Kenrick, 1992).
● Third, the general social climate of the society can also make a difference.

A minority will be more effective if it argues for a position in line with current social trends
outside the group.

The "behavioral style" of a minority is important. To be effective, a minority must be

consistent and forceful (Wood et al., 1994).