Research into Conformity

LO: To define different levels of conformity

LO: To identify an experiment which
highlights participants conformity levels

What is conformity?
What is conformity and can you think of
reasons why people may conform?

Conformity tendency to change what we do

or think in response to the influence of
others or social pressure (real or imagined)

Different types of
conformity

Compliance

Identification
Internalisation

Using the worksheets in groups of 3, one

person should read each type of conformity
and explain to others. Fill in w/s.

Jenness (1932)
Glass bottle filled with beans. He asked
participants individually to estimate how
many beans the bottle contained.
Jenness then put the group in a room with the
bottle, and asked them to provide a group
estimate through discussion.

Participants were then asked to estimate the

number on their own again to find whether their
initial estimates had altered based on the
influence of the majority.

Jenness then interviewed the participants

individually again, and asked if they would like to
change their original estimates...
Almost all changed their individual guesses
to be closer to the group estimate.

Experiment: Asch 1956

Procedure
-

123 male American undergraduates tested

in lab experiment

PPTs always answered in same order

- Confederates instructed to give same

incorrect answer on 12 of 18 trials

Findings
On the 12 critical trials, 36.8% of responses
made by real PPTs were incorrect - they
conformed to incorrect unanimous response.
25% of PPTs never conformed
Control group no confederates = mistakes
about 1% of the time.

Why did people conform?

Asch interviewed some of the participants and
found that they tended to give one of three
reasons.
-

They believed it
They doubted themselves and followed the
majority
They didnt believe it... They just pretended

Distortion of perception
Small number of participants came to see the
lines in the same way as the majority

Distortion of judgement
They felt doubt about the accuracy of their
judgement and therefore yielded to the
majority view

Distortion of action
The majority of PPTs who had conformed,
continued to trust their own judgement
privately, but changed their public behaviour
giving incorrect answers to avoid
disapproval from other group members
What type of conformity is this?

To finish
Summarise the 3 forms of
conformity