Conformity & Obedience

Module 75

Conformity

Is this really true? Find out HERE

Social Influence

• How behavior is influenced by the social environment and the presence of other people
• It affects:
• Conformity
• Obedience
• Group Behavior

Conformity

• We are natural mimics – mirror neurons, empathizing with others, mood linkage to others
• Conformity - Adopting attitudes or behaviors of a group
• 2 general reasons for conformity
• Informational social influence refers to behavior that is motivated by the desire to be correct
• Normative social influence—behavior that is motivated by the desire to gain social acceptance and approval.

Solomon Asch

• Researched the circumstances under which people conform

1907-1996

• Asch’s Experiment:
• All but 1 in group was confederate
• Seating was rigged
• Asked to rate which line matched a “standard” line
• Confederates were instructed to pick the wrong line 12/18 times

Asch’s Experiments on Conformity

• Results
• Asch found that 76% participants conformed to at least one wrong choice during multiple trials.
• BUT when data from all the trials was combined, subjects gave wrong answer (conformed) on only 37% of the critical trials.
• Means that almost 2/3 (63%)of people did not conform & said correct answer even when others said the wrong one
• However, Control group that responded alone (no group present) chose correctly 99%.
• Why did 1/3 of participants conform to clearly wrong choices?
• informational influence?
• subjects reported having doubted their own perceptual abilities which led to their conformance – didn’t report seeing the lines the way the confederates had

Factors Increasing Conformity

• The person feels incompetent or insecure.
• The group has three or more people.
• The rest of the group is unanimous.
• Person admires the status of the group.
• No prior commitments were made.
• The group is observing the person respond.
• One’s culture encourages conformity.

Factors Decreasing Conformity

• When we have an ally in our dissent from majority opinion, even if the dissenter’s competence is questionable.

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Effects of a �Nonconformist

• If everyone agrees, you are less likely to disagree HOWEVER…
• If one person disagrees, even if they give the wrong answer, you are more likely to express your nonconforming view
• Asch tested this hypothesis
• one confederate gave different answer from others
• conformity dropped significantly

Culture & Conformity

• In general, levels of conformity have steadily declined since Asch’s original study of U.S. college students in the 1950s
• Individualistic cultures tend to emphasize:
• Independence
• self-expression
• standing out from the crowd
• Thus the whole notion of conformity tends to carry a negative connotation
• Collectivistic cultures, however, publicly conforming while privately disagreeing is regarded as socially appropriate tact or sensitivity

OBEDIENCE

Obedience

• Obedience:
• compliance of person is due to perceived authority of asker
• request is perceived as a command
• Milgram interested in unquestioning obedience to orders

Stanley Milgram’s Studies

Basic study procedure

• teacher and learner (learner always confederate)
• watch learner being strapped into chair
• learner expresses concern over his “heart condition”

Stanley Milgram’s Studies: Procedure Continued

• Teacher goes to another room with experimenter
• Shock generator panel – 15 to 450 volts, labels “slight shock” to “XXX”
• Teacher asked by Experimenter to give higher shocks for every mistake Learner makes

Stanley Milgram’s Studies

• Learner protests more and more as shock increases
• Experimenter continues to request obedience even if teacher balks saying,
• “The Experiment Requires that you continue.”
• “You have no other choice, you must continue.”

Milgram’s Results

• How many people would go to the highest shock level?
• Two-Thirds or 65% (26 out of 40) of the subjects went to the end, even those that protested
• Those that did stop, not one stopped before the 300-volt level.

Milgram’s Obedience to Authority�(Data from Milgram, 1974)

Obedience to Authority

• Play “Obedience: The Milgram Study” (4:04) Segment #34 from Psychology: The Human Experience.
• Or Click HERE to download & view actual video from his original experiment. (5 minutes)
• Would it work today? 2009 retest of the Milgram Experiment (5 min)
• 70% obey up to 150-volt point
• Women obeyed at rates similar to men

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Explanations for �Milgram’s Results

• Abnormal group of subjects?
• Numerous replications with variety of groups shows no support
• Milgram’s study has been repeated many times in the United States and other countries with identical results
• People in general are sadistic?
• videotapes of Milgram’s subjects show extreme distress & not enjoying the experience

Explanations for �Milgram’s Results

• A previously well-established framework to obey
• The situation, or context, in which the obedience occurred (Authority of Yale and value of science)
• New situation and no role model of how to behave or defy the orders
• The gradual, repetitive escalation of the task
• Experimenter self-assurance and acceptance of responsibility
• The physical and psychological separation from the learner

Follow-Up Studies to Milgram

Conditions that Decrease the Likelihood of Destructive Obedience

• Willingness to obey diminishes sharply when:
• buffers that separate the teacher from the learner are lessened or removed.
• experimenter left the room and spoke to the subject over the telephone rather than in person.
• teachers were allowed to act as their own authority and freely choose the shock level,
• 95 percent did not venture beyond 150 volts—the first point at which the learner protested
• People were more likely to defy an authority when they saw others do so

Critiques of Milgram

• Did his experiment cause psychological trauma or harm to its participants?
• Although 84% later said they were glad to have participated and fewer than 2% said they were sorry, there are still ethical issues
• Do these experiments really help us understand real-world atrocities?

Were Milgram’s Obedience Experiments Ethical?

• Attacked for the emotional stress, tension, and loss of dignity experienced by the subjects
• Although 84% later said they were glad to have participated and fewer than 2% said they were sorry, there are still ethical issues
• Follow-ups of Milgram’s subjects indicate that a large majority were glad to have taken part in the experiment and had no signs of harm or traumatic reaction

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• Milgram suggested that what was disturbing to people were not so much his methods but his results

Does this Apply to Today?

Asch, Milgram, and the Real World �

• Being at odds with the majority or with authority figures is very uncomfortable for most people—
• Enough so that our judgment and perceptions can be distorted and we may act in ways that violate our conscience
• Each of us does have the capacity to resist group or authority pressure but…

Will we do so?

Abu Ghraib Prison:�“I was just following orders.”