Sunday 10 April 2011

Social Psychology - Conformity RE: Resisting Conformity

Personality factors that have been suggested to affect resistance to conformity:
  • Nervousness
  • Feelings of inferiority
  • Insecurity
  • Self-blame
  • Need for approval from others
We are more likely to conform if we feel we 'beling' in the group; more likely to resist conformity.
If we feel we share a 'Psychological identity' with members of the other group then it is much easier to conform because we feel comfortable and feel like we belong.

Nemeth (1986)
We are more likely to think about the issue when exposed to a minority viewpoint

Group Unanimity
If the group split then people find it easier to resist conformity because then they are not the only ones giving a different answer and they wont feel as much pressure
Asch found that if just one other group member agrees with the naive was enough to reduce conformity from 33% to 5.5%

Group Size
ISI - As group size increases so does conformity
Conformity is at it's greatest when the majority is between 3 and 5
The smaller the group the more likely people are to resist conformity because we are not as pressured to fit in because there are less people in the group. Therefore we find it easier to become individual

Psychological Reactance
Forbidden fruit
We change our views to a position opposite to that expected
More likely if the perceived restriction on freedom is given by an authority figure and if it is requested aggressively

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