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Subject PSYCHOLOGY

Paper No and Title Paper no.7: Social Psychology

Module No and Title Module no.24: Conformity, Compliance & Obedience

Module Tag PSY_P7_M24

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Learning Outcomes
2.Social Influence
3.Conformity
3.1 What is conformity?
3.2 Classical experiments on conformity

3.3 Why do people conform?

3.4 When and to what extent do people conform?

3.5 Resisting pressures to conform

3.6 Minority influence

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4. Compliance
4.1 What is Compliance?
4.2 Principles of Compliance
4.3 Techniques of Compliance

4.4 Factors that increase compliance

5. Obedience
5.1What is Obedience?
6. Stanford Prison Experiment

7. Summary

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1. Learning Outcomes
After studying this module, you shall be able to

 Understand various forms of social influence.

 Identify reasons as to why people conform and the ways of resisting conformity.
 Analyze the concept and techniques of compliance.
 Learn about obedience.

2. Social Influence
Social influence is a common part of our lives. There are many ways through which changes are produced
by people in other individual’s behavior, beliefs and attitudes. It explores how individuals are affected by
the real or imagined presence of other individuals in their lives.

Social influence can occur between people as well as in the context of social groups. There are two types
of social influence within groups; social change and social control. The power of social influence helps us
to understand why good individuals sometimes do bad things.

This influence can be intentional or unintentional and direct or indirect. Three major forms of social
influence include- conformity, obedience and compliance.

Figure 1: Showing the forms of Social Influence

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3. Conformity
3.1 What is Conformity?

Conformity refers to the tendency to change one’s beliefs or behavior to match the behavior of others
(Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004). Conformity encompasses obedience and compliance, since it refers to any
behavior that is a result of the influence of others. It involves changing one’s behaviors to fit in with other
people. Hence, conformity usually involves behaving like the majority of members in a certain group.

Conformity is common occurrence in our social world. Many times people just go along with things that
they do not agree with. In an experiment on conformity in 1932, Jenness asked participants to estimate the
number of beans in a bottle. At first, participants estimated the number individually and in the later
condition they estimated it as a group. After being asked as a group, they were again asked individually.
Results showed that participants changed their estimates from their original to one that was closer to what
other members of the group had estimated.

Since conformity also deals with how the majority influences the members to conform, it is often known
as majority influence. It also refers to the pressures on the people to behave according to social norms.
Thus, it serves a very important function as it helps to avoid chaos and maintain order.

3.2 Classical Experiments on Conformity

Sherif’s Autokinetic experiment in 1935 and Asch’s conformity experiment in 1951 are two most
influential experiments in the area of conformity.

3.2.1 The Sherif Studies

Sherif in 1935 used the autokinetic phenomenon to study how norms emerge and how they influence
people. In the autokinetic phenomenon, a single, stationary point of light in a dark room is perceived as
moving. Sherif studied this phenomenon under two conditions. In one condition, participants were alone
and in other condition; several others were also present with each participant. He then asked each
participant to sit in a dark room and see a single point of light. Each participant was informed that the
light would move and he was required to estimate how far it moved. Many people thought the light
moved only one or two inches, while one person thought it moved as much as 800 feet! Sherif reported
that when participants were placed with other individuals; individuals influenced each other and
developed a social norm. Even when in the alone situation, they responded in accordance with the group
norm. This shows that social influence has a very powerful effect on our behavior.

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Figure 2: Showing the results of Sherif’s experiment.

Sherif's experiment clearly shows that in an ambiguous situation, individuals usually conform to the
group. This is an example of informational social influence.

3.2.2 Asch’s Studies

Asch (1951, 1956) reported that when individuals are faced with an unambiguous situation, they would
trust their own perceptions and give their independent judgments, even when every other member of a
group disagreed with them.

The participants in the experiment were told that it was a 'vision test.' The other participants in the
experiment were confederates, a fact not known to the subject. The task of the participants was to choose
a line that matched the length of one of 3 lines. When asked individually, the participants chose the
correct line. However, in the group situation the confederates intentionally selected the wrong line. In this
case it was found that around 75% of the participants conformed to the group at least once during the
study. This experiment shows the powerful effect of normative social influence. This is due to the fact
that the participants changed their answer in order to conform to the group.

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Figure 3: Asch Line Judgement Task .

The effect of the number of individuals present in the group on conformity was also studied. When just
one confederate was present, there was almost no influence on the participants' answers. When two
confederates were present, very small effect was found. The level of conformity increased when three or
more confederates were present. When one of the confederates gave the correct answer while the rest
gave the incorrect answer conformity decreased dramatically. Only 5-10% of the participants conformed
to the group. This and later studies show the importance of social support in overcoming conformity.

In the conformity experiments, around 75% participants conformed to the group at least one time.
Participants conformed to the incorrect group answer approximately one-third of the time. To make sure
that participants were able to correctly judge the length of the lines, participants were asked to
individually write down the correct answer. Results showed that participants were quite accurate in their
line judgments and chose the correct answer 98% of the time.

When asked as to why they had conformed to the group, majority of the participants stated that even
though they knew that the rest of the group was wrong, they did not want to be ridiculed.

These results show that conformity occurs due to a need to fit in. It also depends on the belief that other
individuals know better. Conformity may be stronger when stimuli are more ambiguous. It has been seen
that when participants wrote down their responses instead of speaking out, conformity reduced
drastically.

These experiments by Asch on conformity are a classic since they comprehensively explain when, how,
and why individuals conform. However, the major criticisms of these experiments are related to the
reasons for conforming to the group. Some critics feel that people may actually have wanted to avoid
conflict rather than wanting to conform to the group. Another criticism is that the results of the
experiment in the lab cannot be generalized to real-world situations. Many social psychologists believe
that in real-world situations the social pressure to conform is much greater thereby increasing conformity.

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3.3 Why Do People Conform?

Most people often conform to the norms of their group. An individual may conform to the group in order
to be accepted or to avoid rejection or to obtain important information. Deutsch & Gerard (1995)
proposed two possibilities, which are Normative Influence and Informational Influence. Influence springs
from our desire to be liked and from our desire to be right, that is, to have accurate understanding of the
world as well as the impact of cognitive processes that lead us to view the world as fully justified.

3.3.1 Normative Influence

Normative influence refers to “going along with the crowd” in order to avoid rejection and to gain
approval. For instance, we exaggerate our interest in healthy foods in front of our health conscious peers
even though we may not like them. Hence, normative influence originates from a desire to avoid
punishments and gain rewards. For this we conform to the group.

3.3.2 Informational Influence

Informational influence springs from our desire to be right. One reason is that the behavior of others often
provides useful information. It helps us to process correct perceptions of the social world. For instance, if
our friend buys a particular car, we gain information that may lead us to like what our friend likes.

Conformity on the basis of informational influence depends on how well informed we think the group is
and how much we believe in our own judgments. When we are highly uncertain about what is correct,
informational social influence is more powerful than in situations in which we have more confidence in
our ability.

3.4 When and To What Extent do People Conform?

We are more likely to conform in some situations than in others. Some of the factors affecting conformity
are:

1) Group size: Many experiments show that small groups create larger conformity effects. Asch and
his colleagues found that three to five people elicited more conformity than just one or two.
Increasing the number of people beyond five will yield decreasing returns.
2) Unanimity: An individual faced with a unanimous majority is under great pressure to conform.
But several experiments show that someone who punctures a group’s unanimity reduces its social
power.
3) Cohesion: Cohesion refers to the extent to which we are attracted to a particular social group and
want to belong to it. For instance, it is quite common that student’s attitude over time becomes
more similar to those living with them in college hostel.
4) Status: It is the evaluation of a role or an individual by the group. Generally, lower status
individuals conform more than higher status individuals. But in some conditions, even high status
individuals conform. For example, leaders in order to maintain their leadership position may go
along with their group members.

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5) Descriptive & Injunctive Social Norms: Descriptive

norms are the ones that simply describe what most
individuals do in a given situation. People influence other’s behaviors by informing us about what
is generally seen as effective or adaptive in that situation. Injunctive norms specify what should
be done i.e., what is right or wrong in a given situation.
6) Situational Norms: Situational norms guide behavior in a certain situation. These norms are
automatically activated without much conscious thought. They strongly influence our actions.
7) The desire for individuation: This refers to an individual’s willingness to do things that publicly
differentiate him/her from others or make him/her stand out. Such people are less likely to go
along with the majority view and are less socially compliant.
8) The difficulty of the task: Difficult tasks may increase or decrease conformity. When
individuals don’t know how to perform a difficult task, they are more likely to conform.
However, many times increased difficulty can make individuals to accept different responses
leading to less conformity.
9) Characteristics of the situation: Situational factors also influence conformity. For instance, in
ambiguous situations, there is likely to be more conformity.

10) Cultural differences: Researchers reveal that individuals from collectivist cultures are more
likely to conform. Bond and Smith (1996), in a meta-analytic review of studies on the Asch’s
line-judgment task, found that people conform to the majority judgment even when it gave the
obviously wrong response. They also observed that conformity rates were higher in collectivistic
cultures than individualistic cultures. There are pressures for uniformity within groups to reach a
consensus and as a result people depend on the group (Festinger, 1950, 1954). He also reported
that people depend on others for social approval.

11) Goal of accuracy: Accuracy may also act as a central motivation for conformity.

12) Perceived Consensus: Our reaction to beliefs held by others usually depends on our perceptions
of the level of consensus for those beliefs. Social psychologists have found that people process
messages associated with minorities and majorities in different ways.

13) Gaining Social Approval: A very major reason for conformity is to gain social approval of
others. Bond & Smith (1996) in a meta-analysis of conformity studies found that individuals from
collectivist countries were more inclined to conform to the group of confederates than individuals
from individualistic countries. Also whereas nonconformity represents deviance in East Asian
cultures, it represents uniqueness in Western cultures (Kim & Markus, 1999).

14) Goal of Maintaining a Positive Self-Concept: Individuals conform to others to enhance or

protect their self esteem.

3.5 Resisting Pressures to Conform

The evidence presented above emphasizes the process of conformity. However, conformity is not a
general rule. There are times when individuals resist the pressures to conform. Some of the conditions
include:

1. Locus of control: This refers to an individual’s perception of personal control over their own behavior.

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 High internals perceive themselves as having a

great deal of personal control over their behaviour.
Due to this they take personal responsibility for it.
 High externals perceive their behavior as being caused more by external influences or luck.
Hence they do not take responsibility for it.

Atgis (1998) concluded that those who scored higher on external locus of control were more easily
persuaded and likely to conform than those who scored low.

2. Desire for Individuation: This refers to need to maintain an individual identity which outweighs the
desire to conform.

3. Norms that encourage Individualism: Some groups have informal rules that emphasize individual
preferences and choices. Such norms encourage people to maintain an identity of their own.

3.6 Minority Influence

Both minority and majority influence each other. Moscovici (1985) carried out study in this field.
According to this approach, all attempts at producing social influence create conflict between the parties
that are involved. He also reported that minorities often challenge the dominant view and proposed an
alternative that is often dismissed by the majority. But when the minority refuses to be dismissed, it may
make the majority reconsider their decision. Research generally focuses on how the majority influences
people.

4. Compliance
4.1 What is compliance?

Compliance refers to a change in behavior that is requested by another individual or group and the
individual fulfils the request. In other words, it refers to changing one's behavior due to the request of
another individual. Unlike obedience, compliance does not depend upon being in a powerful or authority
position.

Examples of situations involving compliance are a friend's request for help, the salesperson's attempt to
sell something etc. Sometimes the request is direct while at other times, it is more subtle.

4.2 Principles of Compliance

Compliance can be gained through various techniques such as foot-in-the door, ingratiation, lowball
procedure etc. These techniques are based on 6 main principles of compliance (Cialdini, 1994):

1) Friendship or liking: We are more likely to get influenced by people we like or people who we are
friends with. Companies use this principle to make more sales. Hence, individuals are more likely to
comply to people they like or to their friends.

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2) Reciprocity: People usually try to return favors and treat

others as they treat them. Hence according to the norm of
reciprocity, we may feel obliged and comply with others if they have done some favor to us.
3) Commitment and Consistency: People have a desire to be consistent. Once they have made a
committed to something, they tend to fulfill it.

4) Social Validation: The principle of social validation means that we try to do what others are doing to
feel secure and safe.

5) Authority: We feel a sense of duty or obligation to individuals in positions of authority. Uniforms,

job titles and accessories convey a sense of authority and may lead us to accept what these individuals
say.

6) Scarcity: This principle states that things are more attractive when their availability is limited. In
such situations compliance is high.

4.3 Techniques of Compliance

Compliance techniques seek to prompt specific actions from an audience. Based on above principles,
following techniques are used in everyday life.
(1) Based on friendship or liking:
Ingratiation: This refers to getting others to like us so that they comply to our requests. Many
ingratiation techniques work best depending upon situational context. Flattery is considered as best
ingratiation techniques. Self promotion is another technique wherein people inform others about their
past accomplishments and their positive characteristics. Through impression management people utilize
the liking principle at its maximum for example, remembering a person’s name.

(2) Based on commitment and consistency:

Foot-in-the-Door- Under this technique, individual gains compliance by starting with a small request and
then, when this is fulfilled then making a larger request, the one they actually desired. In a study by
Freedman & Frazer (1966), experimenters went door to door to residents to sign a petition in favor of safe
driving. Almost everyone complied with such a small request. After few weeks, experimenter re-
contacted the residents and made a much larger request of bordering a huge sign in front of their lawn
saying “drive carefully.” It was found that more than half of those who had signed the initial petition
agreed to the second request. Only 17% who did not sign the earlier petition were willing to place the
board.

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Low Ball Technique: Under this technique, an individual first makes a commitment and then raises the
conditions of that commitment. Making the commitment in public is central to the success of the low-ball
technique.

3) Based on Reciprocity:

The Door-in-the-face: Here the person seeking compliance starts by asking for a large commitment. But
when other individual refuses, then they make a smaller request. Since the person has refused the earlier
request they might fulfill the second smaller request which was actually the desired one.

The "That's-Not-All" Technique: The goal here is to make the offer as appealing as possible. For
example, if a person is planning to buy something, salesperson may add additional offer such as "If you
buy a set of cosmetics now, you get an extra lipstick for free!"

4) Based on Scarcity:

Deadline Technique: In this technique, individuals are told that they have only limited time to avail an
item.

Playing Hard to get: It involves actions by an individual suggesting that they have little interest in the
target person- the one towards whom playing hard to get is directed. Individuals let the target person
know that they have other offers.

4.4 Factors That Influence Compliance

 Individuals are more likely to comply when they feel that they have something in common with
the individual making the request.
 If only one or two individuals are present, an individual may refuse to comply with the group
opinion.
 The likelihood to comply increases with the number of individuals present.
 When being part of a group is important to individuals, they tend to comply with group pressure.
 When an individual is in the immediate presence of the group he is more likely to comply.

According to study by Emans et al. in 2003, supervisors using both non- forceful and forceful techniques
tend to elicit compliance with their requests.

5. Obedience

5.1 What is obedience?

Obedience can be defined as acting in accordance with direct order or a command. Various laboratory
experiments were conducted by Milgram (1963, 1974) in order to understand the issue of obedience to

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authority. The sample in the experiment consisted of 40 men

who were recruited through newspaper ads. He developed a
shock generator, starting with shock levels at 30 volts up to 450 volts. The switches of the generator were
labeled as "slight shock," "moderate shock" and "danger: severe shock".

The participants acted as a teacher who had to deliver a shock to the student each time the student
answered incorrectly. While the participant thought he was delivering real shocks, the student who was a
confederate, pretended to be shocked. Participants heard sounds of the student pleading to be released or
suffering a heart condition. At the 300-volt level, the student banged on the wall and demanded to be
released. After this point, the learner became quiet and did not answer any further questions. The
experimenter instructed the participant to treat this silence as an incorrect response and deliver a further
shock.

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Table 1: Showing voltage level & the corresponding responses to it

Voltage Confederate response

75 Grunts
120 Says that he would not continue with this experiment
150 Bloodcurdling
200 Screams
300 Refuses to answer, and mentions about a heart condition
330+ Silence

It was found that, 65% of the participants delivered the maximum shocks. Many situational factors can
explain such high levels of obedience (Milgram, 1961):

 The physical presence of an authority figure increased obedience.

 Teacher and learner status was determined randomly.
 The shocks were said to be painful, not dangerous.
 Participants assumed that the experimenter was an expert.
 Since the study was sponsored by Yale, many participants believed that the experiment must be
safe.

Table 2: Showing reasons behind Obedience

FACTORS EXAMPLE/ EXPLANATION

1)Diffusion of Responsibility “I am only following the orders”
2)Perceived Authority Individual in authority wears special uniforms, badges, have titles
etc.
3)Gradual escalation of Individual in authority first orders only to threaten and then gradually
commands escalates commands.
4)Rapid pace of the situation Destructive obedience moves very quickly giving very less time to
think.

Milgram found that if rebellious peers are present then obedience levels are dramatically reduced. This
classic experiment suggests that situational variables have a greater role than personality factors in
determining obedience. However, many psychologists argue that obedience is influenced by both internal
and external factors.

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6. Why good people sometimes do bad things:

Stanford Prison Experiment

The famous Stanford Prison Experiment by Zimbardo (1972) demonstrates extreme behaviors of
individuals in a mock prison. A mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford University. The
sample consisted of 24 undergraduate students who had to play the roles of both guards and prisoners.
Participants were randomly chosen to be a prisoner or a guard. While the prisoners stayed in the mock
prison for 24-hours a day, guards worked in three-man teams for 8 hours shifts and then returned home.

Even though planned for a longer duration, the study was stopped just after six days because it was found
that guards became abusive and the prisoners started suffering from extreme stress and anxiety. Infact,
five prisoners experienced severe stress and anxiety and left the study. Researchers observed the behavior
of the prisoners and guards using hidden cameras and microphones.

This experiment demonstrated the powerful role of the situation in determining human behavior. Since
the guards were in a position of authority, they behaved in ways they would not normally do in their
everyday lives. Since the prisoners were in a situation where they had no real control, they became
passive and depressed.

However, the Stanford Prison Experiment is considered as an unethical experiment since it failed to meet
the standards established by numerous ethical codes related to experimentation and research. It also lacks
generalizability and ecological validity. But this experiment still remains an important study in the
understanding of how the situation can powerfully influence human behavior.

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7. Summary
 Social Influence refers to the phenomena in which people produce changes in other people. There
are many forms of social influence, such as compliance, conformity and obedience.
 Conformity is the tendency to modify one’s beliefs or behaviors so as to match the behavior of
others. It occurs due to normative and informational influence. Many factors determine the extent
to which conformity occurs such as group size, cohesiveness, unanimity etc.
 Resistance to conformity comes from: strong need for individuality, strong need for control etc.
 Compliance refers to changing one's behavior in response to request of another person.
 There are many different tactics people use to gain compliance such as those based on liking,
reciprocity, commitment and consistency etc.
 Obedience refers to acting in accordance with direct order or command. The experiments by
Milgram show that sometimes people can go to any extent just because they have to obey orders
from authority.

PSYCHOLOGY Paper no.7: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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OBEDIENCE