Participants were then shown a fourth line segment: x. Whether it is due to normative or informational social influence, groups have power to influence individuals. Factors that influence obedience Compliance is going along with a request or demand, even if you do not agree with the request. ("CNN Official Interview: Colin Powell now regrets UN speech about WMDs," 2010). Psychology Today 2023 Sussex Publishers, LLC. Furthermore, efforts to replicate Aschs study have made it clear that many factors determine how likely it is that someone will demonstrate conformity to the group. There are several symptoms of groupthink including the following: Given the causes and symptoms of groupthink, how can it be avoided? The size of the majority: The greater the number of people in the majority, the more likely an individual will conform. Conformity is not inherently positive or negative. A substantial amount of research is consistent with the social-identity explanation of conformity. Another phenomenon of group conformity is groupthink. In a study by Martin and Bull (2008), midwives privately filled out a questionnaire regarding best practices and expectations in delivering a baby. The Milgram experiment showed the surprising degree to which people obey authority. When conformity occurs because of fear, concern for ones social standing, or has dangerous consequences. This puts you in a relaxed state in which you can perform your best, if you choose (Zajonc, 1965). a. individual performance cannot be evaluated. Moreover, groupthink can hinder opposing trains of thought. Traveling without being influenced by others is virtually impossible, social psychologists find. When in group settings, we are often influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of people around us. What Is Industrial and Organizational Psychology? Another phenomenon that occurs within group settings is group polarization. In Aschs study, the confederates identified a line segment that was obviously shorter than the target linea wrong answer. Because each individual's efforts are not evaluated, individuals can become less motivated to perform well. Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group. Conformity to group norms is driven by two motivations, the desire to fit in and be liked and the desire to be accurate and gain information from the group. According to the given conditions, we are likely to conform to group pressure when we admire the group's status and attractiveness. Is your impression correct? They were asked to identify which line segment from the first group (a, b, or c) most closely resembled the fourth line segment in length. These actions may, at first, differ from their own personal values. How can dangerous acts of conformity be stopped? Are you middle class? If the group leader is directive and makes his opinions known, this may discourage group members from disagreeing with the leader. Regardless of its form, it can be a powerful forceable to change how large groups behave, to start or end conflicts, and much more. Many students say they would not conform, that the study is outdated, and that people nowadays are more independent. At numbers beyond seven, conformity leveled off and decreased slightly (Asch, 1955). When the learner was in the same room as the teacher, the highest shock rate dropped to 40%. Compare and contrast social loafing and social facilitation. If you lack information about something and need to make a quick decision, copying the behavior of those around you may be the best movethough there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. That is illustrated in the work of Asch, as discussed above. Specifically, people seem to be more likely to conform when they're in groups of three to five. This puts you in a relaxed state in which you can perform your best, if you choose (Zajonc, 1965). The correct option is A. (credit: Nicole Klauss), People in crowds tend to take cues from others and act accordingly. Why would people give the wrong answer? Although the interpretation of those results is not completely clear, it is plausible that collectivists conform more than individualists because they give greater weight to collective goals and are more concerned about how other people view their behaviour and are affected by it. Whats the difference between conformity and groupthink? Table 12.2 summarizes the types of social influence you have learned about in this chapter. We begin this section with a discussion of a famous social psychology experiment that demonstrated how susceptible humans are to outside social pressures. The correct response on each trial is meant to be unambiguous to the normal eye such that the absence of any group pressure would typically result in minimal to no erroneous responses. The confederate learners cried out for help, begged the participant teachers to stop, and even complained of heart trouble. Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychology Overview, Chapter 2: Psychological Research Overview, 2.3 Analyzing Findings and Experimental Design, Chapter 3: Biological Basis of Behavior Overview, Chapter 4: States of Consciousness Overview, Chapter 5: Sensation & Perception Overview, 5.7 Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Perception, 6.6 Learning to Unlearn - Behavioral Principles in Clinical Psychology, 6.7 Learning Principles in Everyday Behavior, Chapter 7: Cognition & Intelligence Overview, 8.2 Parts of the Brain Involved in Memory, 10.2 Freud & the Psychodynamic Perspective, 10.3 Neo-Freudians: Adler, Erikson, Jung, & Horney, 10.5 Humanistic Approaches to Personality, 10.6 Biological Approaches to Personality, 10.8 Cultural Understanding of Personality, Chapter 12: Psychological Disorders Overview, 12.2 Diagnosing & Classifying Psychological Disorders, 12.3 Perspectives on Psychological Disorders, 12.5 Obsessive-Compulsive & Related Disorders, 13.1 Mental Health Treatment: Past & Present, 13.4 Substance-Related & Addictive Disorders: A Special Case, 13.5 The Sociocultural Model & Therapy Utilization, Kathryn Dumper, William Jenkins, Arlene Lacombe, Marilyn Lovett, and Marion Perimutter, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, Changing your behavior to go along with the group even if you do not agree with the group, Conformity to a group norm to fit in, feel good, and be accepted by the group, Conformity to a group norm prompted by the belief that the group is competent and has the correct information, Changing your behavior to please an authority figure or to avoid aversive consequences, Group members modify their opinions to match what they believe is the group consensus, Strengthening of the original group attitude after discussing views within a group, Improved performance when an audience is watching versus when the individual performs the behavior alone, Exertion of less effort by a person working in a group because individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group, thus causing performance decline on easy tasks, Define conformity and types of social influence, Describe Stanley Milgrams experiment and its implications, Define groupthink, social facilitation, and social loafing. There have been several instances of groupthink in the U.S. government. If you suggested that individuals efforts should not be evaluated, to prevent the anxiety of choking under pressure, but that the task must be challenging, you have a good understanding of the concepts discussed in this section. Participants were then shown a fourth line segment: x. Another phenomenon of group conformity is groupthink. At its best, conformity offers a sense of belonging and group identity and can encourage people to adhere to moral standards. Is your impression correct? What makes someone obey authority to the point of potentially causing serious harm to another person? A meta-analysis undertaken on the replications of Aschs line-judgment task across 17 countries confirms the hypothesis stated above: individualistic cultures exhibit lower levels of conformity than collectivist cultures. TheAsch effectcan be easily seen in children when they have to publicly vote for something. The participants were told to shock the learners if they gave a wrong answer to a test itemthat the shock would help them to learn. Eichmanns defense for the atrocities he committed was that he was just following orders. Milgram (1963) wanted to test the validity of this defense, so he designed an experiment and initially recruited 40 men for his experiment. Though it's often derided, conformity isn't necessarily a malevolent force. Monk Prayogshala Research Institution is a not-for-profit academic research institution in Mumbai, India. Informational conformity occurs when individuals look to the group to seek informationdeciding what products to buy, for instance, or which non-group members can be trusted. Conformity motivated by deference to authority or fear of punishment is likely to be harmful. While interviewed following the experiment, participants who predominantly conformed indicated their lack of confidence in the evidence of their senses and greater confidence in the claims that others made. Being nice and pleasing otherswhile socially applauded and generally acknowledged as positive traitscan harm our health, says Gabor Mat. For example, in the context of health care, one would be better off consciously discerning, conforming to, and spreading information on the effectiveness of preventive health-related behaviours and vaccines rather than conforming to conspiracy theories that emerge against these beneficial preventive measures. When is it an advantage to merge with the group and when is it not? The participants believed they gave the learners shocks, which increased in 15-volt increments, all the way up to 450 volts. We begin this section with a discussion of a famous social psychology experiment that demonstrated how susceptible humans are to outside social pressures. It should be noted that group members do reject people who deviate from the group consensus. Here is a video of Colin Powell discussing the information he had, 10 years after his famous United Nations speech. Why do they need to? You have the power to change your circumstances by shifting your motivation. Get the help you need from a therapist near youa FREE service from Psychology Today. When certain features of the situation were changed, participants were less likely to continue to deliver shocks (Milgram, 1965). Their study also found that women and participants from collectivistic cultures were less likely to engage in social loafing, explaining that their group orientation may account for this. In sum, social facilitation is likely to occur for easy tasks, or tasks at which we are skilled, but worse performance may occur when performing difficult or novel tasks in front of others. The presence of another dissenter: If there is at least one dissenter, conformity rates drop to near zero (Asch, 1955). Why we don't want to be a "sexual NPC," and tips to become a full sexual player character. Do you prefer to travel alone or in groups? True False? The topics of conformity, social influence, obedience, and group processes demonstrate the power of the social situation to change our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The power of the situation can lead people to conform, or go along with the group, even in the face of inaccurate information. Conformity is one effect of the influence of others on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In a collectivist culture, the individual strives for the benefit and welfare of the social unit rather than just focusing on individual achievement. The participants were shown how to use a device that they were told delivered electric shocks of different intensities to the learners. In a different classroom, the majority might vote differently, and most of the children would conform with that majority. Is obedience the same thing as conformity? In evolutionary terms, going against ones group could be costly, and social cohesion was critical for the groups overall success. Doliski et al. What would it look like if you re-framed the goal of dating to be less about what kind of relationships you end up in and more about how it makes you feel? What makes someone obey authority to the point of potentially causing serious harm to another person? citation tool such as, Authors: Rose M. Spielman, William J. Jenkins, Marilyn D. Lovett. Conformity and Obedience General Psychology - University of Conformity is the change in a persons behavior to go along with the group, even if he does not agree with the group. Deindividuation is often pointed to in cases in which mob or riot-like behaviors occur (Zimbardo, 1969), but research on the subject and the role that deindividuation plays in such behaviors has resulted in inconsistent results (as discussed in Granstrm, Guv, Hylander, & Rosander, 2009). The participants gave (or believed they gave) the learners shocks, which increased in 15-volt increments, all the way up to 450 volts. What if the person believes it is incorrect, or worse, unethical? Although informational and normative influences have been discussed here as though they are mutually exclusive, they occur simultaneously in at least some group situations. Why Japanese society may provide an especially good cultural fit for some autism-related behaviors. Essentially, conformity involves giving in to group pressure. There are several symptoms of groupthink including the following: Given the causes and symptoms of groupthink, how can it be avoided? Or are you more likely to do less work because you know others will pick up the slack? Harding (2018) compared groups of students who had self-selected into groups for class to those who had been formed by flocking, which involves assigning students to groups who have similar schedules and motivations. But despite its evolutionary roots, conformity is not universally beneficial and can prove dangerouseither to individuals or to the group itselfwhen its resulting norms and practices are never questioned. The remaining members of the group were confederates of the researcher. Describe how seeking outside opinions can prevent groupthink. Looking at your own past behavior, what evidence suggests that you would go along with the order to increase the voltage? Bond and Smith found that cultural values were indeed related to conformity: people in collectivist cultures displayed more conformity than did people in individualist cultures. By the end of this section, you will be able to: In this section, we discuss additional ways in which people influence others. Deindividuation refers to situations in which a person may feel a sense of anonymity and therefore a reduction in accountability and sense of self when among others. If the group is isolated from hearing alternative or new viewpoints, groupthink may be more likely. How did the Bush administration arrive at their conclusions? Conformity denotes a wide-ranging phenomenon in which people (intentionally or unintentionally) shift their behavior or beliefs to fit in with a larger group. College students could work around social loafing or free-riding by suggesting to their professors use of a flocking method to form groups. Interestingly, the opposite of social loafing occurs when the task is complex and difficult (Bond & Titus, 1983; Geen, 1989). In Aschs study, conformity increased with the number of people in the majorityup to seven individuals. WebMinority Influence: Resisting Group Pressure. The Asch effect can be easily seen in children when they have to publicly vote for something. Not only did she find that students reported less free riding, but that they also did better in the group assignments compared to those whose groups were self-selected. The most plausible explanation is that most men are socialized to be more dominant and assertive than are most women, and most people of both sexes are more likely to exhibit such gender-consistent behaviour in public (group-pressure) settings than in private settings. The (greater) effort that non-conformity might involve with respect to forming individual opinions and convincing others in the group about the validity of ones judgment could also lead to higher levels of conformity. What does compliance mean in conformity research? To some extent this may be true. Instead, participants complied to fit in and avoid ridicule, an instance of normative social influence. Every conformity experiment has found that some people conform more than others. Doing things that cause it to be unsafe for LGBTQ+ people to be open about being LGBTQ+ and not living their lives celibate and alone does not eliminate their existence. 11.4 Conformity, Compliance, & Obedience by Kathryn Dumper, William Jenkins, Arlene Lacombe, Marilyn Lovett, and Marion Perimutter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. According to Hofstede, individualistic structures entail ascribing greater importance to individual goals, self-actualization, autonomy, and uniqueness. Groupthink refers to a specific kind of dysfunctional decision-making in which a group of well-intentioned people make irrational decisions. Group situations can improve human behavior through facilitating performance on easy tasks, but inhibiting performance on difficult tasks. Group polarization can be observed at political conventions, when platforms of the party are supported by individuals who, when not in a group, would decline to support them. Conformity Jun 28, 2023 OpenStax. Social loafing and social facilitation both occur for easy or well-known tasks and when individuals are relaxed, Asch effect:group majority influences an individuals judgment, even when that judgment is inaccurate, confederate:person who works for a researcher and is aware of the experiment, but who acts as a participant; used to manipulate social situations as part of the research design, conformity:when individuals change their behavior to go along with the group even if they do not agree with the group, group polarization:strengthening of the original group attitude after discussing views within the group, groupthink:group members modify their opinions to match what they believe is the group consensus, informational social influence:conformity to a group norm prompted by the belief that the group is competent and has the correct information, normative social influence:conformity to a group norm to fit in, feel good, and be accepted by the group, obedience:change of behavior to please an authority figure or to avoid aversive consequences, social facilitation:improved performance when an audience is watching versus when the individual performs the behavior alone, social loafing:exertion of less effort by a person working in a group because individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group, thus causing performance decline on easy tasks. Conversely, if the group was initially opposed to a viewpoint, group discussion would likely lead to stronger opposition or a more extreme viewpoint in the opposite direction. Why does groupthink occur? As a result, 6000 American soldiers were killed and many more civilians died. When the researcher gave the orders by phone, the rate dropped to 23%. Finally, the theory assumes that conformity involves private acceptance as well as public compliance, because people believe that in-group norms provide valid evidence about reality. Most of the junior midwives were obedient to authority, going against their own beliefs. 1. A rationale for this hypothesis would be that individuals coming from collectivist countries could be more inclined to ascribe greater importance to social opinion and blend with the majority while those from individualistic countries would be more willing to establish their autonomic decision-making abilities and uniqueness. Asch found that an appreciable percentage of individuals submitted to the majority. As much as most people like to think of themselves as unique individuals, in reality, humans are social beingsand for the sake of group cohesion, people are evolutionarily driven to fit in. This elimination of diverse opinions contributes to faulty decision by the group. Personal Perspective: Fostering self-awareness about why we cover our true selves can help us understand how to foster greater authenticity. In addition to wanting to hold correct beliefs about the world, people are motivated to be accepted by other group members. group When the learner was in the same room as the teacher, the highest shock rate dropped to 40%. Aesthetic behavior is a universal phenomenon, but there are cultural differences in aesthetic preferences. Asch (1955) found that 76% of participants conformed to group pressure at least once by indicating the incorrect line. But we do not always blindly conform to the beliefs of the majority. For instance, a society in which all members collectively agree to conform to certain driving-related behaviorsdriving on the right side of the road, perhaps, or yielding to pedestrianswill experience fewer traffic accidents than a society without such agreements. Obedience requires a social hierarchyin which lower-ranking people comply with demands from authority figures above them. That is, if a group initially favors a viewpoint, after discussion the group consensus is likely a stronger endorsement of the viewpoint. One reason is called social proof; its common to assume that if most other people are doing something, it must be correct. of Psychology Why does groupthink occur? These variations show that when the humanity of the person being shocked was increased, obedience decreased. Surprisingly, there were participants who reported that they yielded to the majority despite believing with certainty that the majority dissenting was incorrect. The finding that conformity is more likely to occur when responses are public than when they are private is the reason government elections require voting in secret, so we are less influenced by others opinions (figure below).
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