Compliance, Indentification, Internalisation
A temporary change where we agree with the majority if the view but secretly disagree. It only lasts when we are with the group.
You agree with the opinions of a group because we value the group however we might not privately agree with it.
Where we agree with the majority view privately and openly.
Deutch and Gerard
The desire to be right. You look to others whom we believe to be correct to give us information on how to behave.
Its the desire to be liked and to fit in.
strength is that there is research support for NSI. Ash's experiment where P's went along with the majority view just because other people did.
weakness is that NSI does not take in individual differences as some people are greatly concerned with being liked by others.
Wanted to test conformity under non ambiguous conditions.
123 American male students were the sample. Told it was a study for perception. Did a visual task where the P's had to match the length of a line to three other comparisons. One real p and seven other confederates. They were told to give wrong answers on 12 out of 18. it was a Lab study. the real p was sat second to last.
Control condition- Ps would make errors less that 1% of the time
Unanimous bogus majority Ps conformed 36.8% of the time
25% did not conform
75% conformed to at least one trial
Some did conform to not spoil the results.
Group size
Broken Unanimity
Task Difficulty
It was in controlled lab conditions so it has high internal validity
The sample choice was large and had similar backgrounds
Does not take in cultural differences as Smith and Bond found that collectivist culture have higher levels of conformity
Ethical issues as the were told it was a perception test so they were decieved and had a lack of informed consent
T o f i n d o u t i f p e o p l e w o u l d o b e y t o a p e r s o n i n a u t h o r i t y t o h a r m a n o t h e r p e r s o n .
M i l g r a m s e t u p a l a b e x p e r i m e n t . P a r t i c i p a n t s w e r e t o l d t h a t s t u d y w a s a b o u t t h e r o l e o f p u n i s h m e n t i n l e a r n i n g . T h e p a r t i c i p a n t s a l w a y s h a v e t h e t e a c h e r r o l e a s t h e c o n f e d e r a t e a l w a y s h a d t h e l e a r n e r r o l e . T h e t e a c h e r h a d t o g i v e t h e l e a r n e r a s h o c k e v e r y t i m e t h e y c o u l d n '