Psychology / Unit 10: Social Psychology
10.2 Conformity
Notes
Conformity is adjusting behavior or thinking to match a group.
- Solomon Asch (1950s): participants judged line lengths, and about one-third of responses conformed to a group's clearly wrong answers. Having even one person disagree sharply reduced conformity.
- Normative influence: conforming to be accepted. Informational influence: conforming because you believe others know more.
- Conformity increases when the group is unanimous, the task is hard, or the group is important to you.
- Not all conformity is bad. Following traffic rules is helpful conformity.
Practice
In Asch's line studies, conformity decreased when:
An ally who disagrees makes it easier to resist.
Jasmine laughs at a joke she doesn't find funny because everyone else is laughing and she wants to fit in. This is:
She is conforming to be accepted.
A new student sees everyone in the cafeteria sitting in a certain place and assumes it must be the right place. This is:
She assumes others know better.
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