Understanding Conformity: Normative vs. Informational Social Influence
Thoughts:
Not long ago I had a baby which came with a bunch of decisions to make. Thanks to the internet, the information is plentiful about any questions you might have. So, I thought, I will be able to make the decisions with ease. Little did I know.
One of the topics of my anxiety was whether or not we should give our baby a milk formula.
My husband, an adept internet sailor, found a research paper that talks about the dangers of vegetable oil consumption. He proceeded to convince our entire family to ditch most of the products containing it. Including baby formula which has it in its contents.
Upon going to the pediatrician for our usual check-up, and receiving a huge bag of milk formula cans for free, I wondered, why is everybody so chill about this option?
How come it became so popular that all my friends go for it without a doubt? Moreover, all the doctors seem to be eager to give you free samples.
Upon discussing it with my husband, we came to a conclusion that the conformity bias is at play here.
When a group does something - a group knows better? You wouldn't want to stand out too much, right? At the end of the day, personal responsibility is much heavier than group one.
There is a very famous experiment - Asch Line Study - where participants were shown a target line and asked to select the line (out of three options) that matched its length. The catch was that most of the group were confederates of the experiment who intentionally picked the wrong line. In the end, despite the task being fairly simple, the real participants chose to confirm to the group choice rather than stand by what they thought was right.
I don’t know about you, but this experiment scares me. How much do we choose just because we don’t want to stand out?
Poster:
Adapted from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/normative-informational-social-influence.htmlResearch (Deutsch and Gerrard (1955) ) tells us there are two reasons why people confirm:
Normative social influence
prompts individuals to conform to group norms to fit in, gain acceptance, and feel good. It can cause individuals to adopt behaviors, attitudes, or values that they might not personally hold to fit in or to avoid disapproval from the group.
Examples:
Peer Pressure: A person may feel pressured to smoke because the rest of their friends are. They conform to the group behavior, not out of personal desire but to gain acceptance and avoid social exclusion.
Fashion Trends: When people follow fashion trends that they don’t necessarily like, it shows the desire to fit in with societal expectations and the fear of standing out or being viewed as different.
Social Media Likes: The trend of posting content on social media that aligns with popular sentiment, even if it doesn’t reflect one’s true opinion.
2. Informational social influence
leads people to conform, believing the group possesses competent and correct information, especially in ambiguous situations or tasks.
This type of conformity occurs when a person is unsure of a situation or lacks knowledge. Individuals publicly change their behavior to fit in with the group while agreeing with them privately. This is the deepest level of conformity, where the group’s beliefs become part of the individual’s belief system.
Examples:
Ambiguous Situations: If someone was to go to a posh restaurant for the first time, they might be confronted with several forks and not know which one to use, so they might look to a nearby person to see what fork to use first.
Emergency Situations: In emergencies, people often look to others to determine how to respond. If everyone else is calm, a person is likely to conclude that the situation isn’t serious, whereas if people are panicking, the person will likely perceive the situation as serious.
Public Health Crises: During public health crises, people often rely on information from health officials, government leaders, and peers to determine how to protect themselves.
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