Conformity is when someone acts in a certain way to either fit in with other people, a social group, or social norms. Sometimes the person will knowingly change the way the act to fit in and seek approval or sometimes the person conforms without even knowing. There are two main forms of conformity: compliance, where the person will change their public attitude to fit in however their own private opinion will remain unchanged, and acceptance where the person changes their opinion both in public and privately. When asking why people conform we tend to answer with something called normative social influence which means we have a desire to be liked and we think that by fitting in with norms of society we are more likely to be liked.
Social norms …show more content…
He wanted to investigate how far people would go to obey instructions even though they knew it was harming someone. He was interested in how easy it was for normal people to harm others for example in World War II. Participants were 40 males aged 20 to 50 from the New Haven area, and they were told they were a teacher and they were introduced to a learner who was actually a confederate and an actor who played the experimenter. The learner was asked to recall words and when they were incorrect the participant was told to give them an electric shock which increased in voltage every time (the confederate was not actually being shocked). If the teacher did not want to continue the actor would give them a prod to make it seem like they had no option. Results showed that 65% of participants continued to the maximum 450 volts and all continued to 300 volts. Milgram concluded that people are more likely to obey authority figures especially if their authority seems right and legal. A big issue however with Milgram’s study is that of deception and the participants genuinely thought they were administering electric shocks and this may have caused them some distress and guilt.
Social norms …show more content…
He wanted to investigate how far people would go to obey instructions even though they knew it was harming someone. He was interested in how easy it was for normal people to harm others for example in World War II. Participants were 40 males aged 20 to 50 from the New Haven area, and they were told they were a teacher and they were introduced to a learner who was actually a confederate and an actor who played the experimenter. The learner was asked to recall words and when they were incorrect the participant was told to give them an electric shock which increased in voltage every time (the confederate was not actually being shocked). If the teacher did not want to continue the actor would give them a prod to make it seem like they had no option. Results showed that 65% of participants continued to the maximum 450 volts and all continued to 300 volts. Milgram concluded that people are more likely to obey authority figures especially if their authority seems right and legal. A big issue however with Milgram’s study is that of deception and the participants genuinely thought they were administering electric shocks and this may have caused them some distress and guilt.