1

Conform-ity & ObedienceEunice Mun – Suzie Park – Sooji Seo 2015.4.6

“It’s easy to stand with the crowd. It takes courage to stand

alone.”

2

Table of Contents

02 Obedience 2-1 Milgram experiment

2-2 Factors that influence obedience

01 Conformity 1-1 Automatic mimicry

1-2 Normative social influence

1-3 Informational social influence

1-4 Difference btw. Normative and Informa-

tional

03 Test your knowledge

3

Conformity01

4

Conformity, what is it?

1) Done studies by Solomon Asch

• Which of the 3 comparison lines is equal to the standard line?

• Answering questions alone, errors less than 1% but answering with

others (confederates who purposely answered incorrectly), more than

1/3 of the time, the students went along with the group

• Approximately 70 % of participants gave at least one incorrect

answer

Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group

standard

01

5

Still confused on Asch Experiment? This video will clear things up

6

Automatic Mimicry

1) Chameleon effect by Tanya Chartrang and John Bargh

• Students were to work together in a room alongside other peo-

ple who were actually confederates. The confederates rubbed

their face and the students tended to rub their face along with

them. Same with foot=shaking

• Creates empathy-feel what others are feeling

• Mimicking the way an another talks or their gestures

Humans are natural imitators, copying other people’s expressions, postures, voice tones, and

moods

1-1

Real life example:

7

Normative social influence

Influence resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or to avoid

disapproval

(matching the rules of behavior)

• Ex) everyone starts standing up and clapping at a concert-> you feel

you need to stand while clapping as well.

• We are sensitive to social norms because the price we pay for be-

ing different can be severe

1-2

8

Informational social influence

Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions

about reality

1-3

9

Normative social influence

More of your behavior• Candid camera (not facing the

door in the elevator …feel the urge to do the same)

More of your thoughts and way of thinking• Asch Conformity (others are

thinking differently than you so you want to follow their way of thinking)

Don’t be confused!Normative social influence vs. Informational so-cial influence

1-4

Informational social influ-ence

10

Obedience02

11

Obedience, what is it?

1) Done studies by Stanley Milgram

• People often give into social pressures

• Done the most controversial and influential experiment

• 40 male volunteers were notified that he was studying the ef-

fects of punishment on learning

• He assigned them to the role of a teacher

• Each subject told to help another subject to learn a list of word

pairs. Each mistake=electric shock to the learner. (Increased

every time the learner made a mistake)

• *They actually did not receive the shock, but pretended to.

• Result: 2/3 of the teachers did administer highest level of shock

despite believing that the learner was suffering great pain and

distress

• Thought it was because they were pressured to do so by

an authority figure

Compliance with commands given by an authority figure

02

Obedience=one of many

factors that caused people

to follow orders during the

Holocaust

12

Simple outlook on the Milgram Experiment

2-1

Became the ‘teacher’

40 males (20-50 yrs) volunteered

‘teacher’ tests the ‘learner’ (who is

actually a confederate acting)

Told to administer an electric shock per

mistake, but increasing the level of

shock each time

Result: 2/3 of the participants (‘teachers’)

continued to the highest level of 450

volts. All participants continued to

300 volts.

13

Obedience to Authority

14

Factors that Increase Obedi-ence

1. Commands were given by an authority figure rather than another volunteer

2. Experiments were done at the prestigious institution

3. Authority figure was present in the room with the subject

4. Learner was in another room

5. Subject did not see other subject disobeying commands

6. People obey to get rewards and avoid negative consequences from disobeying

7. In more extreme situation, people obey when they are required to violate their

values and morals. Why?

• People justify their behavior by assigning responsibility to the authority

rather than themselves

• People define the behavior that’s expected of them as routine

• People don’t want to be rude or offend the authority

• People obey easy commands first and then feel compelled to obey more and

more difficult commands. This is called entrapment and it illustrates the

foot-in-door phenomenon.

2-2

15

Test your knowledge

1. In the Milgram studies, the dependent mea-

sure was the

a) Highest level of shock supposedly admin-

istered

b) Location of the learner

c) Length of the line

d) Number of people in the group

e) Instructions given by the experimenter

2. In Asch’s conformity study, approximately

what percentage of participants gave at least

one incorrect response?

a) 30

b) 40

c) 50

d) 60

e) 70

3. A change in behavior or belief as a result of

real or imagined group pressure is

a) Compliance

b) Conformity

c) Acceptance

d) Reactance

4. According to the text, the most famous and

controversial experiments of social psychology

are

a) Asch’s conformity experiments

b) Milgram’s obedience experiments

c) Smith and Dunn’s reactance experiments

d) Berg’s compliance experiments

5. Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill

other’s expectations is

a) Nominal influence

b) Informational influence

c) Normative influence

d) Indirect influence

03

16

Thank you for listening.