SPY - Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience Lesson

Learning Targets:

  • Identify the contributions of key researchers in the areas of conformity, compliance, and obedience.
  • Explain how individuals respond to the expectations of others, including groupthink, conformity, and obedience to authority.

AP psychology course and exam description, effective fall 2020. (n.d.). https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-psychology-course-and-exam-description.pdf

Social Influence

One of the greatest lessons in social psychology is that of the power of social influence. Social influence describes the study of how our behavior is influenced by social environments and other people. It instructs us as to what is the norm. How we should act, dress, speak, etc.

Conformity

Sometimes we will change our behaviors to align with those around us. When we change our behavior, attitudes, or beliefs it is called conformity. There are two basic reasons that cause us to conform:

Normative Social Influence

Informational Social Influence
  • Our desire to be liked and accepted by a group.
  • Seen in collectivist societies.
  • Our desire to be right influences our willingness to accept others' opinions about a situation.
  • Seen in individualistic societies.

Factors that promote conformity: 

Factors that promote conformity: You are facing a group of four or more people that have a unanimous opinion; you have to orally respond in front of others your opinion about something; you have not previously expressed a dissenting opinion or idea; you interpret the task as ambiguous or difficult; you have self-doubt in your abilities or knowledge about the subject or situation; you have a strong desire to become part of the group.

Image of Solomon Asch's control line and three comparison lines: The task required participants to orally indicate which of the comparison lines was the same length as the control line. However, there was a catch...

Solomon Asch and Conformity

Just how far will we go to adjust our perceptions and opinions to align with the group majority? This question interested psychologist Solomon Asch who set out to find an answer. Asch chose to conduct a simple experiment in which he had a group of people sit down and look at a series of cards. Each card consisted of a control line and three comparison lines. The task required participants to orally indicate which of the comparison lines was the same length as the control line. However, there was a catch...only one in the group was an actual participant, and the others were confederates and in on the experiment. The real subject had to publicly respond after listening to five confederates clearly state incorrect answers. The outcome was that 76 percent of the participants conformed with the group.

Watch Asch's conformity study in the video below.

Learn more about Asch's conformity study in this video.

Milgram's Obedience Experiment

Image of the Stanley Milgram experiment on obedience: Stanley Milgram is best known for his study on obedience. He wanted to know if a person could be pressured by others into committing immoral acts to the point of hurting strangers.Stanley Milgram is best known for his study on obedience (the performance of an action in response to the direct orders of an authority figure or person of higher status). At twenty-eight years old psychologist Stanley Milgram was intrigued by the Solomon Asch study as well as the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II. He wanted to know if a person could be pressured by others into committing immoral acts to the point of hurting strangers.

To determine how and why people obey the destructive commands of an authority figure he created an experiment in which participants were solicited through a newspaper advertisement representing a wide range of occupations and backgrounds. They were invited to participate in what Milgram was calling a study to examine the effects of punishment on learning at Yale University. Upon arrival, they met what they thought was another participant (this really was a confederate) and were given the task.

The task was communicated by a high school biology teacher wearing a white lab coat. Both subjects were required to draw slips of paper assigning them the role of either "teacher" or "learner". The drawings were rigged so that each time the true participant became the teacher in the experiment.

Their first task was to help strap the learner into an "electric chair". Then the teacher was taken to a separate room with a shock generator and given a list of word pairs. The teacher was instructed to administer an electric shock each time the learner incorrectly read back the word pairs. The shock machine was fake, but the participant did not know that. It was labeled with thirty switches from 15 to 450 volts, ending with XXX. After 330 volts the actor/learner was instructed to fall silent. If the teacher protested in administering the shocks the experimenter would respond that the experiment requires him to continue and there is no other choice. The results of the first experiment with forty participants found that 65% of the subjects remained obedient to the end administering the full 450 volts to the learner.

Learn more about Milgram's findings in the presentation below.

See the Milgram Reenactment in the video below.

Watch this video on conformity and obedience.

Compliance Techniques

Learn more about compliance techniques in the table below.

Foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Door-in-the-face phenomenon

A compliance tactic involves getting those who have first agreed to a smaller request to comply with a larger one. Promotes rationalization of behavior.

A compliance method in which the persuader attempts to commit the respondent to a large request that they will turn down in return for compliance with a smaller request. The smaller request being accepted is the goal of the persuader.

The Zimbardo Prison Study

Image of volunteers in the prison study: In this famous experiment male college students volunteered to spend time in a simulated prison.Role-playing can also affect attitudes. When you adopt a new role, you strive to follow the social prescriptions associated with the role. While at first, the behavior may feel phony, over time it is no longer forced as your attitude changes. Researchers have tested this both experimentally and in everyday situations.

This concept was tested in 1971 by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo. In this famous experiment, male college students volunteered to spend time in a simulated prison. Participants were randomly assigned the role of either prison guard or prisoner. The guards were equipped with uniforms, whistles, clubs, and sunglasses and instructed to enforce the rules and keep an orderly prison. The prisoners were placed in barren cells, wearing humiliating clothes, and referred to by a number rather than a name.

After one to two days, the guards began to embody their roles devising cruel and degrading rules and routines. In response, the prisoners either broke down or rebelled. The study, which was supposed to last weeks, was called off by Zimbardo after only six days.

Watch this video on the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Take a closer look at the Stanford Prison Experiment in the video below.

Watch this featured film on the Stanford Prison Experiment.

[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION