Chapter 7 Conformity Compliance and Obedience Conformity Tendency

Chapter 7 Conformity, Compliance and Obedience

Conformity • Tendency to change perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are consistent with group norms. • Do humans imitate one another automatically, without thought, effort, or conflict?

The Early Classics • Sherif’s study (1936) • Asch’s study (1951)

What Did Asch’s Participants Do? • Participants went along with the clearly incorrect majority 37% of the time. • However, 25% of the participants NEVER conformed. • Still, 50% conformed for at least half of the critical presentations. – The rest conformed on an occasional basis.

Why Do People Conform? • Informational Influence: People conform because they believe others are correct in their judgments. • Normative Influence: People conform because they fear the consequences of appearing deviant.

Types of Conformity • Private Conformity: Changes in both overt behavior and beliefs. • Public Conformity: Superficial change in overt behavior only.

Majority Influence: Group Size • Conformity increases with group size -- but only up to a point (5). • Why? – Law of “diminishing returns”? – Perception that others are either in “collusion” or “spineless sheep”?

Majority Influence: Having an Ally in Dissent (influence of the minority). • When there was an ally in Asch’s study, conformity dropped by almost 80%. • Why does having an ally reduce majority influence on our behavior? – Substantially more difficult to stand alone for one’s convictions than when one is part of even a tiny minority. – Any dissent can reduce the normative pressures to conform.

Culture and Conformity • Cultures differ in the extent to which people adhere to social norms. • What determines whether a culture becomes individualistic or collectivistic? – The complexity of the society – The affluence of the society – The heterogeneity of the society

Compliance • Changes in behavior that are elicited by direct requests.

Mindlessness and Compliance • Talking fast and catching people off guard can improve compliance rates. • People can be disarmed by the simple phrasing of the request. – How you ask for something can be more important than what you ask for. – Langer: We often respond mindlessly to words without fully processing the information they are supposed to convey. • Mindlessness can make us more vulnerable to compliance, but can also have opposite effect

Norm of Reciprocity • The powerful norm of reciprocity dictates that we treat others as they have treated us. – This norm leads us to feel obligated to repay for acts of kindness, even when unsolicited. • Norm of reciprocity is relatively short-lived.

Sequential Request Strategies

Assertiveness: When People Say No • To be able to resist the trap of compliance techniques, one must: – Be vigilant – Not feel indebted by the norm of reciprocity • Compliance techniques work smoothly only if they are hidden from view.

Obedience • Behavior change produced by the commands of authority

Milgram’s Research: Forces of Destructive Obedience • Conducted his experiments during the time that Adolph Eichmann was being tried for Nazi war crimes. • His unorthodox methods have been the subject of much ethical debate.

Factors that Influence Obedience