WEEK 5: Conformity & Obedience

Conformity and Obedience

Conformity Defined

Conformity is defined as a change in behavior or belief resulting from real or imagined group
pressure (Myers, 2014). The change of behavior depends on what a person chooses as a label to
correspond with their values and judgments.

This is why conformity is at times bad (if you conform to the group of drug addicts), at times
good (if a place maintains its cleanliness due to people conforming to others who throw their
wastes in a proper trash bin), and at times unnecessary (if a person wears red during Valentine's
day).

Conformity is not just acting as other people act; it is also being affected by how they act. It is
acting or thinking differently from the way you would act and think if you were alone. Thus,
conformity is a change in behavior or belief to accord with others.

Varieties of Conformity

● Compliance. It is insincere, outward conformity that follows a set of expectations, even

if you do not agree with what you are doing-for example, joining a school parade even if
you dislike being part of it.

● Obedience. It is also compliant but with a direct command. Obedience is a form of

conformity that follows a set of expectations to get rewarded or avoid punishment. For
example, the school requires you to join the school parade because they could gain
something from it.

● Acceptance. It is sincere inward conformity wherein you accept expectations and

requests and believe and act in accordance with the group pressure. For example, joining
a school parade is required, but you also want to be part of it.

CONFORMITY STUDIES

Sherif's Studies of Norm Formation

Muzafer Sherif (1935,1937) conducts an experiment on the development of a social norm in the
laboratory. His experiments aimed to know if the participants would conform to the group even if
other participants would give different answers from them. These experiments' procedure uses an
illusion called autokinetic phenomenon wherein a pinpoint light will be shown to the participant
in a dark room.

For a few seconds, the light would seem to move and would disappear (but it didn't actually
move). The participant will be asked to say their estimation on how long the lights will be
moved. On the second day of the experiment, the participants will be joined by two other
participants (confederates) who are said to have the same experience as a real participant.

The procedure from day one was repeated, but the confederate answers were different from the
participants' answers. Findings reveal that participants conform to the confederates and their
different answers emerge into one (Sherif & Sherif, 1969.) The participants interpret the situation
differently after knowing the views of others. Thus, a group norm was formed, showing that "our
views of reality are not ours alone."

Asch's Studies of Group Pressure

Solomon Asch, a social psychologist, is very well known for his experiments that determine how
people are affected by how others think and behave. He used a picture of a series of printed line
segments of different lengths. He asked the participants to choose a line in the choices that the
given line most closely parallels in length. There is only one true subject in the participant, and
the remaining members are all confederates who are aware of the experiments.

Confederates are used to manipulating the situation wherein they will choose the wrong answer
and know if the subject will conform to them. The experiments show that most people tell the
truth even when others do not (Bert Hodges and Anne Geyer. 2006)

Milgram's Obedience Experiments

Milgram's (1965,1974) experiments seek to determine the obedience of people despite their
conscience. In these experiments, the setting is said to be Yale University's psychology
laboratory. One subject will be assigned as the 'teacher' and a confederate in the room next door
who will act as the 'learner.' The teacher's task is to ask the learner a question about a list of word
pairs given to them. The task of the learner is to give a wrong answer (on purpose). Thirty
switches on the shock generator were labeled from 15 volts (Slight Shock) to 450 volts (XXX).

Every time the teacher switched the shock generator for every wrong answer, there would be a
flash of lights, relay switches click, and an electric buzzer sound. If the teacher refused to
administer a shock, the experimenter would give a series of prods to ensure that; still, if there
were errors, a punishment (delivering a shock of increasing intensity which is actually harmless)
would be given to the learner by the teacher.

Prods:

● Please continue.
● The experiment requires you to continue.
● It is absolutely essential that you continue.
● You have no other choice but to continue.

The findings of these experiments are that two-thirds of participants continued to the highest
level of electric shocks. It implies that people tend to obey orders given by the authority even if it
is against their conscience.

FOUR FACTORS OF OBEDIENCE

Milgram not only revealed the extent to which people will obey authority, but he was also able to
examine the conditions that breed obedience. Below are the four factors determining obedience:

1. Victims' distance - People tend to show their obedience and lessen their compassion if
they cannot see the victims and if they cannot see them. This is why people are more
likely to abuse someone who is distant from them. For example, a person who cannot
argue with someone in person may be crueler when posting on social media, aiming at
anonymous people.

On the other hand, people are less cruel if they can see the victims' situation. This is why
advertisements for cigarettes have compelling photographs or descriptions of individuals
with lung cancer caused by cigarettes. Through these photographs, people who will try to
smoke would have second thoughts about smoking.

1. The authority's closeness and legitimacy - Studies reveal that people comply more if
the authority is physically close. If the authority commands a person by telephones, he
will be less likely to obey the authority's command, or it is possible to lie about obeying
his command.

Moreover, people also tend to comply if the authority is legitimate. Another experiment
examines the behavior of hospital nurses, wherein an unknown physician ordered the nurse
to inject the patient with an obvious drug overdose (Hofling & others, 1966). Findings
show that the majority of nurses did not obey the command of the unknown physician. One
thing is for sure, a doctor is a legitimate authority, and nurses obey the doctors.
 1. Institutional Authority - Authorities who are part of respected institutions inhibit social
power. The obedience of an individual sometimes depends on the reputation of the
authority's institution. This is why we believe more in television news than news posted
by unknown bloggers on social media.

1. Liberating Effects of Group Influence. - People tend to conform due to group

influences even if they don't agree with them. For example, if a leader would ask the
group to do something illegal, but there was a member who disobeyed the command,
other members could possibly conform to the member who disobeyed and defied the
command. But if there would be a person who defies the command, one who doesn't
agree with the command will also disobey in spite of the majority.

Therefore, these classic studies show that group pressure is very powerful in influencing a
person's behavior. In the obedient studies, even if they are in the dilemma of doing good and
doing harm, a lot of participants chose to obey.

Group influence makes the participants comply even if they do not agree and later on makes
them accept and act in accord with the group. And lastly, the power of the situation is seen when
the good participant engages in a terrible situation and tends to do exceptional acts.
Predicting Conformity

The following are conditions that help predict conformity: Group size - People elicit more
conformity if the group size is larger than one or two. A group size of beyond 5 results in
diminishing returns (Gerard & others, 1968; Rosenberg, 1961.) Studies show that people tend to
conform to the decision of two groups of three rather than one group of six (David Wilder, 1977.)
Moreover, people conform more to small independent groups than one large group because a
small independent group's mutual understanding seems to be more credible.

● Unanimity - People tend to do their own beliefs if someone would do the same with
them. It is easier to voice out one's distinct thoughts if at least one person would differ
from the majority.

● Cohesion - Cohesiveness is a "we feeling" in which group members are highly attached
or bound to one another. Therefore, the more cohesive the group, the more members
would follow, and the more power it gains over its members. One usual example appears
in dormitories, where people living together could adapt to the behavior of one another
(Cullum & Harton, 2007).
 ● Status - An individual tends to conform more to people with higher status and is less
likely to obey people who are lower than them. In Milgram's variance of his experiments,
a participant who is a welder (lower status) immediately obeys the experimenter's (higher
status) command. On the other hand, another participant who seemed to be a school
professor (higher status) disobeyed the experimenter's (lower status) command to switch
to 150 volts and started questioning the experiment's ethics. Therefore, higher- status
people tend to have more impact (Driskell & Mullen, 1990).

● Public Response - People usually conform due to public expectations.

They think they need to act according to the majority, even if they don't agree with them. In
Asch's experiment, the number of conforming participants would lessen if they were asked
to write down the answer because there would be no group pressure.

● Prior Commitment - A person with a prior commitment to a certain behavior is less

likely to conform because he will stick to his commitment first.

For example, teens who pledge for virginity till marriage tend to abstain sexually more than
teens who don't pledge. This is because the pledge serves to be their commitment, so they
are more likely to conform to people who are also committed than those who are not,
regardless of the size of the group (Bearman & Bruckner, 2001; Bruckner & Bearman,
2005).

Reasons why we Conform

It was Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard (1955) who identified the two reasons why people
conform.

1. Normative Influence. (Desire to be liked) This results from an individual who wants to
be liked and accepted by society.

They conform because they want to go along with the group to be commended or to gain
approval. Peer pressure is one great example of normative influence wherein they conform
to the group's interest and behavior for them to be part of them. Moreover, we know that
rejection and humiliation are painful.

Normative influence leads people to comply more, especially when they have seen other
people being humiliated or ridiculed. This is why people tend to conform to avoid rejection
and humiliation.
 1. Informational Influence. (Desire to be right) This results from an individual who desires
to be right.

As an individual observes other people who are eliciting their behavior, he, at the same
time, could gather information from their experience with these people. This information
could influence him and conform to their behavior.

For example, your friend asked you to go to a particular restaurant. From this scenario, you
could gather information about the interest of your friend. Even if you don't care what your
friend likes, you may adapt to your friend's interests. This is how informational influence
affects the behavior of a person.

Predictors of Conformity

1. Personality - Personality can predict behavior better if social situations are weak.

For example, a very shy person joined a group of people who are more extroverted and a
people person. Regardless of his personality, the shy person would sooner or later adapt to
the group's behavior. Personality tests are less likely to help determine conformity because
conformity depends on the situation, especially if group pressure is present.

1. Culture - Cultural background helps predict conformity.

Studies show that collectivist countries are more likely to respond to others' influence than
individualistic countries (Roy Bond & Peter Smith. 1996). Moreover, cultural differences
occur within any country and may change over time. Thus, conformity and obedience are
common circumstances, yet the change across cultures and generations.

1. Social Roles - Conformity doesn't always depend on the power of the situation but also
on our social roles.

Norms take significant aspects in conformity because of every role; it conforms to a cluster
of norms. For example, a person who has a professor's role would more likely conform to
the cluster of norms like how professors teach, how they discipline students, or how they
interact with students. This professor would also play a role as a father, wherein he would
conform to another cluster of norms.

1. Role Reversal - A role reversal usually happens in a pair of relationships - parent and
child, doctor and patient, employer and employee, etc.
 Each person would act according to their roles and restate the other person's roles before
acting upon their own roles. For example, an employer- employee relationship wherein the
employer restates his employees' roles or plays a new role as an employee and conforms to
other employees before giving his employees a task so that he would be able to understand
the roles differ from their own. Should we strive to be different?

FACTORS OF ANTICONFORMITY

● Reactance. Sense of freedom and self-efficacy are very significant to every individual.

According to the theory of psychological reactance - that people act to protect their sense of
freedom. If a person was restricted from their sense of freedom, they might inhibit
anti-conformity or the "boomerang effect" to protect their freedom (Brehm & Brehm, 1981;
Nail & others, 2000.) Also, reactance can change one's behavior if other people conform to
them. For example, a non-geeky student stopped wearing a "Livestrong" wristband when a
geeky student conformed to them (Berger & Heath, 2008).

● Asserting Uniqueness. People, especially in those individualistic Western cultures, feel

uncomfortable when they appear to be similar to others.

They have a "spontaneous self-concept" wherein they are aware of individual differences.
Thus, individuals are less likely to be responsive to majority influence (Imhoff & Erb,
2009.) This is why they act in their ways to be different and preserve their uniqueness and
individuality.

GLOSSARY

● Acceptance - Conformity that involves both acting and believing in accordance with
social pressure.

● Cohesiveness - A "we feeling"; the extent to which members of a group are bound
together, such as by attraction for one another.

● Conformity - A change in behavior or belief as to the result of real or imagined group

pressure.

● Compliance - Conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or

explicit request while privately disagreeing.
● Normative influence - Conformity is based on a person's desire to fulfill others'
expectations, often to gain acceptance.

● Informational influences - Conformity occurs when people accept evidence about

reality provided by other people.

● Obedience - Acting in accord with a direct order or command.