Conformity and Obedience
Conformity and Obedience
Social influence is how other people affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Conformity and obedience are two key forms of social influence studied in psychology.
Conformity
Conformity is changing your behaviour or opinions to match those of a group. It is a response to group pressure (real or imagined).
Types of Conformity
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance | Going along with the group publicly but privately disagreeing | Laughing at a joke you do not find funny because everyone else is laughing |
| Internalisation | Genuinely changing your beliefs to match the group — public AND private agreement | Converting to a religion after being influenced by friends who are believers |
| Identification | Conforming to a group you identify with or want to belong to — adopting their views and behaviours | Dressing like a music subculture you admire |
Key Study — Asch (1951) Line Study
Aim: To investigate whether people would conform to an obviously wrong answer given by a group.
Method:
- A participant was placed in a group with 5-7 confederates (actors)
- They were shown a standard line and three comparison lines, and asked which comparison line matched the standard
- The correct answer was always obvious
- On 12 of 18 trials ("critical trials"), confederates all gave the same wrong answer
- The real participant answered last or second-to-last
Results:
- 75% of participants conformed at least once
- On average, participants conformed on 32% of critical trials
- 25% never conformed
Conclusion: People conform to group pressure even when the answer is clearly wrong — demonstrating the power of normative social influence (the desire to fit in).
Factors Affecting Conformity
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Group size | Conformity increases with group size up to about 3-4, then levels off |
| Unanimity | If one person disagrees with the majority, conformity drops dramatically (to ~5%) |
| Task difficulty | Conformity increases when the task is harder and the answer is less obvious |
| Self-esteem | People with lower self-esteem are more likely to conform |
Obedience
Obedience is following a direct order or instruction from an authority figure.
Key Study — Milgram (1963)
Aim: To investigate how far people would go in obeying an authority figure, even when asked to harm another person.
Method:
- 40 male participants were told they were in a study on "learning and punishment"
- The participant was the "teacher"; a confederate was the "learner" (in another room)
- The teacher had to administer increasing electric shocks (15V to 450V) every time the learner gave a wrong answer
- The shocks were fake — the learner was an actor who screamed, complained of a heart condition and eventually went silent
- An experimenter in a lab coat prompted the teacher to continue with standard prods ("The experiment requires that you continue")
Results:
- 65% of participants went to the maximum 450V (labelled "XXX" — potentially fatal)
- 100% went to at least 300V
- Many participants showed signs of extreme stress (sweating, trembling, nervous laughter) but still obeyed
Conclusion: Ordinary people will obey authority figures even when asked to do something they believe is morally wrong — obedience to authority is far stronger than most people predict.
Factors Affecting Obedience
| Factor | Effect on Obedience |
|---|---|
| Proximity | Obedience dropped when the learner was in the same room (40%) or the teacher had to press the learner's hand onto the plate (30%) |
| Location | Obedience dropped when the study was moved from Yale University to a run-down office building (47.5%) |
| Uniform | Obedience increased when the authority figure wore a lab coat; decreased when they wore normal clothes |
| Social support | When two confederate "teachers" refused to continue, obedience dropped to 10% |
Exam Tips
- Know Asch's study for conformity and Milgram's study for obedience — including method, results and conclusions
- Be able to explain factors that increase or decrease conformity/obedience
- For AO3: both studies have ethical issues (deception, psychological harm, right to withdraw difficulties) and validity concerns (artificial tasks, demand characteristics)
- Distinguish between conformity (group pressure, no direct order) and obedience (direct order from authority figure)
- Common 12-mark question: "Evaluate Milgram's study of obedience" — use PEEL paragraphs with strengths and weaknesses