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Conformity
Chapter Six
What are we talking about?
• Conformity: a change in behavior or belief,
resulting from perceived group pressure
• Compliance: public conformity despite
private disagreement
• Obedience: compliance to an explicit
command
• Acceptance: conformity in action and belief
in accord with social pressure
Classic studies
• Sherif’s studies of norm formation
– Day 1 - 6 inches, 10 inches, avg. = 8 inches– Day 4 – One year later • Suggestibility
– “Mood linkage”
– The “chameleon effect”
– Copycat suicides
Classic studies (cont.)
• Asch’s studies of group pressure
• Milgram’s obedience experiments
What breeds obedience?
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Emotional distance of the victim
Closeness and legitimacy of the authority
Institutional authority
The liberating effects of group influence
Reflections on the classic studies
• Behavior and attitudes
– Compliance breeds acceptance
• The power of the situation
• The fundamental attribution error
– “Perhaps then, we should be more wary of
political leaders whose charming dispositions
lull us into supposing they would never do evil”
(p. 222).
When do people conform?
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Group size
Unanimity
Cohesion
Status
Public response
No prior commitment
Why conform?
• Normative influence
– Going along with the crowd to gain acceptance
or avoid rejection
• Informational influence
– Conforming because of acceptance of
information provided by others
Who conforms?
• Personality
• Culture
Resisting social pressure
• Reactance - the motive to protect or restore one’s
sense of freedom in response to a perceived threat
• Asserting uniqueness
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