1. Conformity is changing one's behavior or beliefs due to real or imagined social pressure from a group. It involves publicly agreeing with a group while potentially privately disagreeing (compliance) or fully adopting the group's beliefs (acceptance). 2. Classic studies on conformity include Sherif's experiments on norm formation, in which participants' estimates changed to match the group's responses, and Asch's line judgment study, where 75% of participants conformed at least once by agreeing with an incorrect group response. 3. In Milgram's obedience study, 65-66% of participants continued administering electric shocks to a learner even after being told by the experimenter to continue shocking to dangerous levels, showing

1. Conformity
Why we follow others.
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2. What is conformity?
• Conformity--a change in behavior or belief as a
result of real or “imagined” group pressure.
• It is not simply acting like others, but also being
effected by how they act.
• You “consciously” act differently from the way
you would act alone.

3. Two Types of Conformity:
• 1. Compliance - involves publicly acting
in accord with social pressure while
privately disagreeing.
• Why do we do this?
• We comply to receive a reward or to avoid
a punishment.

4. Types of Conformity contd.
• 2. Acceptance - involves both acting and
believing in accord with social pressure.
• E.g., We may decide not to drink alcohol
because our society adopts a strong moral
view against drinking.

5. A. Classic Studies in Conformity:
• 1. Sherif’s studies of Norm Formation
• 2. Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure

6. 1. Sherif’s Study: Part I
• Sherif (1935, 1937) wanted to examine the
formation of social norms.
• Ss were seated in a dark room. Fifteen ft. in
front of the S, a pinpoint of light appears.
• At first, nothing happens, then it appears to
move erratically & disappears.
• The S has to guess how far it moved.

7. The darkness of the room adds to
the Ss uncertainty.
• The S makes a “guess.” (6 inches). The
experimenter repeats the procedure & the S
guesses again.
• With repetitions, the S reports estimates that
tend to fall around an average (around 6-8
inches).

8. Sherif’s Study: Part II
• The next day, the S returns & is joined by two
others (also previous Ss).
• When light is presented, the other Ss give their
best guesses from the day before. One says “1
inch,” the other S says, “2 inches.”
• Surprised the S, says, “6 inches.” What he said
before.
• Does our subject’s original responses change
when in the company of the other two people?

9. Sherif’s findings:
• Sherif found that Columbia University
students, did change their responses when
in the presence of others.
• A group norm emerged!!!

10. The Norm was false!!!!
• Why????
• The light never moved!!! It a perceptual illusion
called the: autokinetic phenomenon.
• A solitary light that is stationary, will appear to
move, unless in the presence of another blinking
light (reference).

11. Sherif’s followup:
When tested a year later would their
answers change?
• No, they continued to report the group
consensus!!!!

12. 2. Asch’s group pressure study:
• A true S was seated in a row among confederates.
• The S was seated 6th
in a row of 7 people.
• The goal of the study was to examine perceptual
judgments & the participants were instructed to
pick which of 3 lines “matched” a standard line.
The true S could see that one of the lines was
obviously a match, the others obviously wrong.

13. 2. Stimuli for study:
• X- standard line

14. Asch study
On first 2 trials, all people agree which line is right
size.
On 3rd
trial, all 5 people seated before the S, give
an incorrect answer.
What does our S (6th
seat) say?
75% of Ss in this experiment, conformed at least
once with the group and picked the wrong size
line.

15. Asch’s results:
• On average across trials, 37% of time Ss
conformed.

16. Do recent replications of Asch
study hold up?
• Mixed results, but many studies do not find
this conformity result.

17. B. Milgram Shock Experiment
Milgram advertised for participants to get
paid for completing Yale study on memory.
• 2 people showed up to psychology lab.
One was true S & the other a confederate.
• A stern experimenter in a lab coat,
explained that study was interested in the
effect of punishment on learning.

18. Milgram Study
• The S was to play the role of “teacher,” the
confederate, the role of “learner.”
• “Teacher” was to read word pairs to the
“learner” who was in another room hooked
up to shock leads.
• With each missed word, the S was to shock
the “learner.”

20. Milgram study
• The shock panel had switches ranging from
15 to 450 volts in 15-volt increments.
• Switches were labeled: “slight shock,”
“very strong shock,” “danger: severe
shock,” etc.
How many Ss went on shocking the
“learner” all the way?

21. Milgram’s Results:
• 65-66% of Ss continued shocking “learner”
to full capacity.

22. What factors influence obedience?
• 1. Emotional distance of victim
• 2. Closeness & legitimacy of the authority
• 3. Institutional authority
• 4. Liberating effects of group influence

23. When do people conform?
• 1. Group size- 3-5 people will elicit more
conformity than 1 or 2 people.
• Beyond 5 people- conformity drops off.

24. Milgram’s field study (1969):
• Required 1,2,3,5,10, or 15 people to
“pause” on a busy New York City sidewalk
& look up.
• % of people passing by who also looked up
increased as the number of people looking
up increased (from 1 to 5).

25. 2. Unanimity
• An individual who disagrees with a group,
& punctures the group’s unanimity deflates
its social power.
• Ss will voice their own views if just 1
person has done so.

26. 3. Cohesion
• The greater the cohesiveness of the group, the
more power it has over its members.
• We are more easily swayed by a minority opinion
from inside our group than from another group.
• E.g., we often feel compelled to “act-like” those
within our ethnic group to avoid being mocked by
members of our group (Contrada & others, 2000).

27. 4. Status
• Higher-status people tend to have more
influence over others.

28. 5. Public response:
• People conform more when they must
respond publicly in front of others.

29. Why do we conform?
• We conform to avoid rejection & to stay in
others’ good graces.
• Normative influence- “When in Rome, do
as the Romans would do.”

30. Who conforms?
• Are some people more likely to conform
than others?
• Who is more susceptible to conformity?

31. 1. Personality-predisposes us to either
be conforming or non-conforming.
2. Culture- Conformity is higher in
countries high in collectivism & lower in
countries high in individualism.

32. Resisting Social Pressure
• 1. Reactance- people rebel when their
sense of freedom is threatened.
• 2. Asserting Uniqueness- being different
to make a statement about oneself.