The word “conformity” has many negative connotations. It is often thought of as mere mindlessness, or is referred to as “sheep-like.” However, conformity is a useful tool used by people to help them navigate uncertain situations. Conformity, according to Butler and MacManus is the “act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to (perceived) group norms” (2000). This can include the way a person acts, dresses, or talks. Such as teenager wearing sagging pants because that’s what he perceives to be “cool,” or the accepted group norm. Over time, a member of a group’s opinions will fall in line with the rest of the group, particularly in situations where the correct decision is unclear, or on matters where they do not have a firm opinion to
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In 1951, 50 male students from Swathmore College were recruited for what they thought to be a “vision test.” Each participant was brought into a room with seven actors, pretending to be other student participants. There they were shown a line of a particular length, and were asked to match this line’s length to another line out of a set of 3 lines of varying lengths (A, B, C). The actors beforehand agreed on a particular “wrong” answer, and the real participant was the last one directed to give an answer each time. Out of the 12 trials, the individual would match their answer to the incorrect answer of the other group members’ one third of the time, and 75% percent of individuals gave a wrong answer at least once. Participants said they gave the wrong answer because they feared the might appear “peculiar” to the other members of the group if they did not agree, or because they did not want to mess up the experiment.” People conform to group norms “because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are informational influence” (McLeod, S. A. …show more content…
Their character agreed to visit an insect exhibition. There, a fire broke out, and the participants had to make a decision about how to escape based on the situation. After this initial response, the respondents would be shown what other individuals guessed, and would have an opportunity to changed their answers. Individuals were also measured in a non-fire situation as a control. Compared to the non-fire situation, the fire situation led to participants making worse decisions, and conforming more often in their answers regardless of the number of choices presented. Conformity in the behavior during the fire situation (11.40%) was significantly higher than the conformity behavior during the nonfire situation (7.24%). This may be a biological instinct, “Survival instinct causes individuals to desire more information to ensure the maximum probability of survival during a fire emergency, and they may believe that the majority possesses a greater amount of valid information than they do themselves.” Therefor people are more likely to conform in emergency situations to raise their chances of survival (Duo, Shen, Zhao, & Gong,
In 1951, 50 male students from Swathmore College were recruited for what they thought to be a “vision test.” Each participant was brought into a room with seven actors, pretending to be other student participants. There they were shown a line of a particular length, and were asked to match this line’s length to another line out of a set of 3 lines of varying lengths (A, B, C). The actors beforehand agreed on a particular “wrong” answer, and the real participant was the last one directed to give an answer each time. Out of the 12 trials, the individual would match their answer to the incorrect answer of the other group members’ one third of the time, and 75% percent of individuals gave a wrong answer at least once. Participants said they gave the wrong answer because they feared the might appear “peculiar” to the other members of the group if they did not agree, or because they did not want to mess up the experiment.” People conform to group norms “because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are informational influence” (McLeod, S. A. …show more content…
Their character agreed to visit an insect exhibition. There, a fire broke out, and the participants had to make a decision about how to escape based on the situation. After this initial response, the respondents would be shown what other individuals guessed, and would have an opportunity to changed their answers. Individuals were also measured in a non-fire situation as a control. Compared to the non-fire situation, the fire situation led to participants making worse decisions, and conforming more often in their answers regardless of the number of choices presented. Conformity in the behavior during the fire situation (11.40%) was significantly higher than the conformity behavior during the nonfire situation (7.24%). This may be a biological instinct, “Survival instinct causes individuals to desire more information to ensure the maximum probability of survival during a fire emergency, and they may believe that the majority possesses a greater amount of valid information than they do themselves.” Therefor people are more likely to conform in emergency situations to raise their chances of survival (Duo, Shen, Zhao, & Gong,