Why Do People Conform?

The causes of conformity among individuals have long been debated and researched in recent decades. It is for this reason that conformity is an intriguing psychological concept. It causes sound-minded individuals to go against their best judgement, to engage in behaviour which they usually would not engage in, even accept and welcome an idea they internally disagree with, all in order to not be a deviant from the group. It is thus interesting to look at the factors which cause people to conform, to do what they see others doing, to rely on the judgements of the group, and to ignore their own senses and perceptions. It is the reasons for the individual’s desire to conform that I will be discussing in this paper.

In 1936 some of the first studies were carried out on this concept of conformity by Muzafer Sherif. In these studies Sherif made use of a phenomenon known as the auto-kinetic effect, whereby a point of light in an otherwise totally dark room will appear to move randomly. In the first experimental condition, subjects were invited to estimate the amount of ‘movement’ they observed. When the subjects were asked individually a huge range of answers were given. Sherif recorded each subject’s response. In the second experimental condition, Sherif gathered the subjects into groups, usually of three, and asked them to describe verbally the movement of the light. No instruction was given that they had to reach some kind of agreement, the subjects were simply aware of the other’s results whilst calling out theirs. During the group sessions it became apparent that the subjects’ reports started to converge much nearer an average. The results of this groundbreaking study were, and still are, remarkable. But it was not without its flaws. A harsh critic of Sherif’s experiment was Solomon Asch, who argued that it showed little about conformity since there was no right answer to conform to.

In 1955 Asch designed an experiment that did not have the ambiguity of the Sherif experiment. He wanted to be able to put a subject under various amounts of group pressure so that he could control, manipulate and measure his willingness to conform. In Asch’s experiments, a group of eight individuals (one subject and seven confederates) sat in a room and verbally stated which of the three unequal lines matched a given line. The subject was seated so that he made his verbal judgement last, or close to it. The task was simple and straight-forward and the correct answers were obvious. When the confederates were each calling out correct answers the subject agreed. However, when the confederates unanimously agreed on a wrong answer the subject had either to disagree with a unanimous majority of seemingly normal, healthy, intelligent people, or to give an answer he knew was incorrect by the evidence of his own senses. Asch’s study proved startling. In the trials about one third of the subjects conformed at least once. People were clearly choosing what they knew to be wrong answer so as to not deviate from the group.

What do these studies show us about people, and their reasons for conforming? I believe that the individual’s desire to be correct plays a key role in this type of conformity. People often rely on social cues around them, in a given situation, when making judgements. In a group situation, like that in the Sherif experiment, if an individual is unsure about something they will look at the judgements of others in order to determine the correct response. According to Blanton and Christie people experience ‘negative emotional states’ when they are not correct. It is apparent from these studies that correctness affects a person’s mood, and as such a person would conform to confirm that they were correct.

Another essential element we must consider when determining the reasons individuals choose to conform is social acceptance. I would now like to direct your attention to an interesting experiment carried out by Johnson and Sheets. Imagine a group of freshmen, possibly in UCC. They choose to conduct a drinking game, even though they all know that it is not a good idea, and is potentially harmful to their health. This contradiction of an individual’s own better judgement is an interesting example of conformity as it demonstrates their need for social acceptance. Upon entering the game the students had an anticipated outcome, such as new friendships, relationships and greater popularity. It seems that our desire for acceptance is so strong that we may be willing to put ourselves at risk to achieve it.

An indispensable area which plays a part in the individual’s desire to conform is the individual’s social identity. Studies show that there may be cultural reasons for conforming. An examination of the history of conformity in America and Eastern Asian cultures over the past few decades revealed that individuals’