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Conformity and Obedience
Social Psychology
by David G. Myers 9th Edition
Conformity and Obedience
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
What Is Conformity?
• Conformity
– A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group
pressure
– The key to knowing whether you are conforming is whether your behavior
would be the same apart from the group. Would you rise and cheer if you
were the only fan?
• Compliance
– Conformity that involves outwardly going along, while disagreeing
• You put on a tie even though you don’t like it
• Obedience
– Acting in accord with a direct order or demand
• We comply to reap a reward or avoid a punishment
• Acceptance
– Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social
pressures.
• We may come to inwardly believe something we initially questioned
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
Classic Studies
• Asch’s studies of group
pressure
– People were asked which
lines matched. When all
others said the same wrong
answer, 37% of the time
people conformed to the
wrong answer.
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
• What happens when the demands of authority
class with the demands of obedience?
– The experiment required a participant to teach the other
a list of words and punish errors by giving shocks of
different intensities.
– They drew slips for the role of teacher and learner
– How far would you go?
• When asked how far they thought other people would go, no
one expected anyone to proceed to the XXX shock, but 65% of
them went all the way to the 450 volts shock
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Classic Studies
Conformity and Obedience
• Milgram’s obedience experiments
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
What Breeds Obedience?
•
The victim’s distance:
–
•
Closeness and legitimacy of the
authority:
–
•
When commands were given by phone,
obedience dropped to 21%
Institutional authority:
–
•
In Milgram’s experiment, people acted
with the most obedience when the
victim could not be seen. If they could
not hear complaints they went all the
way.
The fact that Milgram conducted his
study at Yale legitimized the commands
The liberating effects of group
influence:
–
–
Conformity can also be good.
For example, you may not want to stand
up for something you believe in, until
others do.
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
Reflections on the Classic Studies
• Ethics:
– Some have stated that Milgram stressed his participant’s against
their will (teacher’s experienced agony and their self conception
may have been altered)
• Behavior and attitudes:
– These experiments show the attitudes fail to determine behavior
when external influences override inner convictions.
• The power of the situation:
– Immediate situational forces are powerful
– Evil can result from a few bad apples.
• The fundamental attribution error:
– We are startled by these experiments because we expect people to
act in accordance with their dispositions.
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
What Predicts Conformity?
•
Group size:
–
•
•
Unanimity
Cohesion
–
•
Higher status people tend to have more
impact
Public response:
–
•
The more cohesive a group is, the more
power it gains from its members
Status:
–
•
3 to 5 people elicit more conformity
than 1 or 2
People conform more when they must
respond in front of others
No prior commitment:
–
After giving a public answer, if asked to
reconsider most people don’t.
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
Influences on Conformity
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
Why Conform?
• Normative influence:
– Conformity based on a
person’s desire to fulfill
other’s expectations, often
to gain acceptance.
– Example: going along with
the crowd to avoid rejection
• Informational influence:
– Conformity occurring when
people accept evidence
about reality provided by
other people
– You conform to a gain
information
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
Who Conforms?
•
Personality:
– Personality is a poor predictor of
behavior. However, when
influences are strong people
conform despite personality
•
Culture
– Cultural background can be
predictive of how conforming
people will be
•
Social roles
– Role reversal: by intentionally
playing a new role and conforming
to its expectations, people
sometimes change themselves or
empathize with people whose roles
differ from their own.
– Certain roles require certain
actions
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Conformity and Obedience
Do We Ever Want to Be Different?
• Reactance: a motive to protect
or restore one’s sense of
freedom. Reactance arises
when someone threatens our
freedom of action.
– Individuals value their sense of
freedom and self-efficacy.
When social pressures become
so blatant that it threatens their
sense of freedom, they often
rebel.
• Asserting uniqueness: we feel
weird when we are too different
from others, but we also don’t
like being the same.
Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.