Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience

Conformity, Compliance and Obedience (group influence processes)

• Social influence refers to those processes whereby our attitudes and behaviours are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.
• Social influence is a part of our life.
• In some situations, social influence on us is very strong as a result of which we tend to do things which we otherwise would have not done.
• On other occasions, we are able to defy influence of others and may even influence them to adopt our own viewpoint.
• Kelman distinguished three forms of social influence:

1. Compliance

• In compliance, there are external conditions that force the individual to accept the influence of the significant other.
• Compliance also refers to behaving in a particular way in response to a request made by someone.
• Can also be called ‘external/public conformity’.
• Compliance could take place even without a norm.
• We sometimes show compliance not because of a group norm or even because we personally believe in the same, but because we see no harm or problem in it. And one finds it easier to say ‘yes’ rather than ‘no’ to a harmless request.

2. Identification

• It refers to influence process based on agreement-seeking or identity-seeking.

3. Internalisation

• It is a process based on information-seeking.

Conformity

• A type of social influence in which the individuals change their attitudes or behaviour in order to adhere to existing social norms.
• It also means behaving according to the group norms i.e. the expectations of other group members.
• People who do not conform are called ‘deviants’ or ‘non-conformists’ and get noticed more than those who do conform.
• Conformity is the most indirect form of social influence as you are conforming because you do not want to deviate from the norm.
• The tendency to follow a norm is natural and spontaneous because:

1. Norms represent a set of unwritten and informal ‘rules’ of behaviour that provide information to members of a group about what is expected of them in specific situations. This makes the whole situation clearer, and allows both the individual and the group to function more smoothly.
2. In general, people feel uncomfortable if they are considered ‘different’ from others. Behaving in a way that differs from the expected form of behaviour may lead to disapproval or dislike by others, which is a form of social punishment. This is something that most people fear, often in an imagined way.
3. The norm is seen as reflecting the views and beliefs of the majority. Most people believe that the majority is more likely to be right rather than wrong. Thus, people conform to the norm because they believe that the majority must be right.

Determinants of Conformity:

1. Size of the group

• Conformity is greater when the group is small than when the group is large.

Small group -> Greater conformity

Large group ->Lesser conformity

• This is because it is easier for a deviant member (one who does not conform) to be noticed in a small group.
• However, in a large group, if there is strong agreement among most of the members, this makes the majority stronger, and therefore, the norm is also stronger. In such a case, the minority member(s) would be more likely to conform because the group pressure would be stronger.

2. Size of the minority

• When the dissenting or deviating minority size increases, the likelihood of conformity decreases.
• In fact, it may increase the number of dissenters or non-conformists in the group.

Increase in size of minority -> Decrease in conformity

Decrease in size of minority -> Increase in conformity

3. Nature of the task

• In the task which requires an answer that could be verified and could be correct or incorrect, there would be more conformity than in the task which involves giving an option about some topic where answers can vary widely without any answer being correct or incorrect.

4. Public or private expression of behaviour

• When the group members are asked to give their answers publicly, i.e. all members know who has given which response, then the conformity is more.
• However, there can be other situations (for example, voting by secret ballot) in which the behaviour of members is private (not known to others), then the conformity would be less.

5. Personality

• Some individuals have a conforming personality.
• Such persons have a tendency to change their behaviour according to what others say or do in most situations.
• By contrast, there are individuals who are independent, and do not look for a norm in order to decide how to behave in a specific situation.
• Highly intelligent people, those who are confident of themselves, those who are strongly committed and have a high selfesteem are less likely to conform.

Conformity takes place because of:

1. Informational influence

• Influence that results from accepting evidence rather than reality
• This kind of rational conformity can be thought of as learning about the world from the actions of others.
• For instance, we learn by observing people, who are the best source of information about many social conventions, or new group members learn about the group’s customs by observing the actions of other group members.

2. Normative influence

• Influence based on a person’s desire to be accepted or admired by others.
• In such cases, people conform because deviation from group may lead to rejection or at the least, non-acceptance of some form of punishment.

It is generally observed that the group majority determines the final decision, but in certain conditions, a minority may be more influential. This occurs when the minority takes a firm and uncompromising stand, thereby creating a doubt on the correctness of the majority’s viewpoint.

Compliance

• It refers simply to behaving in response to a request from another person or group even in the absence of a norm.
• It is less direct than obedience because someone has requested and thus we comply (here, the probability of refusal is there).
• In many situations, people comply because:

1. it is an easy way out of the situation
2. it is more polite and the other party is pleased

• The following techniques have been found to work when someone wants another person to comply:

  

Obedience

• When compliance is shown to an instruction or order from a person in authority, that behaviour is called obedience.
• Obedience is the most direct and explicit form of social influence.
• We show obedience because if we disobey, some punishment might follow or we believe that persons in authority must be obeyed.
• People in authority have effective means for enforcing their orders.
• Milgram’s study suggests that even ordinary people are willing to harm an innocent person if ordered by someone in authority.
• Reasons for Obedience even when people know that their behaviour is harming others:

1. People obey because they feel that they are not responsible for their own actions, they are simply carrying out orders from the authority.
2. Authority generally possesses symbols of status (e.g., uniform, title) which people find difficult to resist.
3. Authority gradually increases commands from lesser to greater levels and initial obedience binds the followers for commitment. Once you obey small orders, slowly there is an escalation of commitment for the person who is in authority and one starts obeying bigger orders.
4. Many times, events are moving at such a fast speed, for example in a riot situation, that one has no time to think, just obey orders from above.