Conformity and Obedience

1
Conformity and Obedience

• Are we really just a bunch of sheep?

2
Conformity vs. Individuality

• Due to our upbringing in American culture,
  individuality has a certain allure
• But
• Another word for individualist is deviant
• Another word for conformist is team player
• Obviously, there are times where conformity, and
  obedience, are crucial
• Despite Hollywoods depiction, research
  (Schacter Kruglanski) shows that the conformist
  is liked more

3
Reactance

• We cant label every incident of disobedience as
  individuality
• Some cases dont involve thought, instead, they
  involve merely acting contrary to the wishes of
  others
• Aronson calls this anti-conformity
• More popular term is reactance
• Romeo and Juliet Effect (Driscoll, Davis, and
  Lipetz, 1972)

4
Groupthink

• Not all conformity is good though
• Countless examples where conformity is disastrous
  
• The Holocaust
• Watergate Scandal
• Space Shuttle Challenger (Twice)
• Bay of Pigs Invasion

5
Groupthink, Continued

• Irving Janis coined the term groupthink
• When concurrence seeking overrides realistic
  appraisal
• Factors that lead to groupthink
• Self-censorship
• Illusion of unanimity
• Direct pressure on dissenters
• Mind Guards
• Illusion of invulnerability
• Illusion of morality
• Stereotype and dismiss competitors

6
Conformity and Solomon Asch

• Definition change in a persons behavior or
  opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure
  from a person or group of people
• Asch (19511956) completed two studies that
  demonstrate how easily conformity occurs
• Naïve subject is brought into lab with 6-8
  confederates
• Asked to make a judgment about line length

7
Asch

• Subject is seated next to last
• In 12 of 18 trials confederates provide the wrong
  answer DV is whether subject follows
• Ordinarily subjects make mistakes 1 of the time,
  in this experiment 36.8 of the time
• Remember, this is in the absence of explicit
  rewards for conformity

8
Asch Other Variables

• Size of group as group size increases to 3
  others, conformity increases. After that, little
  change
• Presence of one dissenter decreases conformity
  immensely
• If dissenter disagrees with both it still reduces
  conformity
• The more wrong the majority was, the less
  influence
• The greater the privacy, the less conformity
• Accuracy versus approval issue

9
Variables that Increase/Decrease Conformity

• Decrease lack of unanimity
• Decrease induce individual to make commitment to
  their initial judgment
• Decrease high-self esteem individuals
• Decrease Individualistic vs. Collective cultures
• Decrease feeling of security in a group
• Increase expert power
• Increase similarity of group to the individual

10
Information Seeking

• Conformity is not always a result of seeking
  social reward and acceptance
• When in ambiguous situations we look to others
  for the appropriate behavior. We accept that
  expertise and conform to their behavior

11
Responses to Social Influence

• Compliance purely motivated by desire to gain
  reward or avoid punishment (Power)
• Identification adopt a behavior to be like those
  we find attractive. A greater level of belief
  adoption than in compliance (Attractiveness)
• Internalization becomes part of our belief
  system. Intrinsically driven by the desire to be
  correct. Most enduring (Credibility)
• Asch study is an example of compliance

12
Applications of Conformity Research

• Obedience to Authority Stanley Milgram
• Key ideas
• Power of the situation
• Tendency of observers to commit the fundamental
  attribution error
• Self-serving bias
• I was merely following orders
• Factors
• Distance from learner, prestige of location

13
Applications of Conformity Research

• The uninvolved bystander
• Kitty Genovese episode leads to research on
  helping
• Latane and Rodin Darley and Latane find that the
  presence of others reduces helping behavior by as
  much as 50
• Often labeled the diffusion of responsibility
• Also can be viewed as conforming to the behavior
  of others who are present

14
Increasing Helping Behavior

• Interpret the situation as an emergency
• Make people feel personally responsible for
  helping
• Reduce cost of helping (e.g., lost time)
• Increase belief that they can be helpful
  (otherwise people will remove self from situation)

15
Obedience to Cult Leaders

• To begin, creating a definition for a cult is
  tricky
• Are alternatives being taken away?
• Is access to new information being denied?
• Is personal responsibility being usurped by the
  leader?
• Size and history are often considered too (e.g.,
  societal influence)

16
Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple

• Over 900 followers perished for most it was a
  voluntary suicide
• It would be easy to view this as an aberration,
  but then we lose the lesson it can teach
• Jones used (perhaps unwittingly) a number of
  powerful social psychological phenomenon to his
  advantage

17
Pratkanis and Aronson (1992) How to become a
cult leader

• Create your own social reality. Cut off external
  sources of information. Mail should be censored.
  Isolate cult headquarters from the rest of the
  world
• Establish an ingroup of followers and an outgroup
  of the unredeemed.
• Jones called doubters the enemy
• Suicide would lead to salvation for the chosen
  people

18
Cult Leader Tips

• Generate commitment through dissonance reduction.
  Insure obedience by establishing a spiral of
  escalating commitment
• Foot in the door technique
• Cognitive dissonance and justification of actions
• Severe initiations lead to higher evaluation of
  groups

19
Cult Leader Tips

• Establish the cult leaders credibility and
  attractiveness
• Send members out to proselytize the unredeemed
• Brings in new members
• Members are constantly engaged in self-persuasion
  (dissonance reduction once again)
• Distract members from undesirable thoughts
• Chanting, letter writing

20
Cult Leader Tips

• Maintain the notion of a promised land and a
  vision of a better world. Provides a powerful
  incentive to keep working. Maintains hope by
  providing a sense of purpose and freedom