Content uploaded by T Joel Wade
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by T Joel Wade on Jul 27, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
Conformity and Group Size: The Concern with Being Right and the Concern with Being Liked
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the group-size effect in an Asch-type conformity experiment is a function of the concern with being right and the concern with being liked. In addition to a manipulation of group size, there were manipulations of manner of responding (public or private) and of the nature of the judgments (objectively determined or undetermined). Consistent with expectations, each of the latter two variables interacted with group size. There was also a significant main effect for group size, and a significant deviation from control indicating that conformity occurs with private judgments relating to objective stimuli.
... Deutsch and Gerard [1955] explain that individuals conform either because they believe the majority's judgements to be 'correct' in ambiguous situations (informational 5 conformity), or as they attempt to 'fit in' by agreeing to positive expectations of the group (normative conformity). While the majority of work on social conformity is based on offline group settings [Asch, 1951[Asch, , 1955Rosenberg, 1961;Mullen, 1983;Insko et al., 1985], understanding the effects of social conformity on online group interactions is vital due to the proliferation of 10 online platforms [Reynolds et al., 2011;Goncalves et al., 2013;Brzozowski et al., 2015;Gooch et al., 2020;Sanders et al., 2020]. ...
... Social conformity is a powerful social influence that was initially observed in offline groups [Asch, 1951[Asch, , 1955Rosenberg, 1961;Mullen, 1983;Insko et al., 1985]. In a seminal study that investigated the effect of group opinions on individual judgements, Asch [1951] established that clearly incorrect yet unanimous group majorities provoke conformity behaviour in offline settings. ...
... Prior work on social conformity in both offline and online settings identify majority-minority group composition as a significant determinant of conformity behaviour [Asch, 1951;Goldberg, 1954;Asch, 1955;Rosenberg, 1961;Mullen, 1983;Insko et al., 1985;Wijenayake et al., 2019Wijenayake et al., , 2020a. Studies investigating social conformity in controlled offline settings emphasise that larger unanimous majorities lead to higher conformity [Asch, 1951;Rosenberg, 1961;Mullen, 1983;Insko et al., 1985]. ...
Social conformity is the act of individuals adjusting their personal opinions to agree with an opposing majority. Previous work has identified multiple determinants of social conformity in controlled laboratory studies, but they remain largely untested in naturalistic online environments. For this study, we developed a realistic debating website, which 48 participants used for one week. We deployed four versions of the website using a 2 (high vs. low social presence) x 2 (high vs. low emphasis on majority–minority group composition) between-subjects factorial design. We found that participants were significantly more likely to conform when the platform promotes high social presence, despite its emphasis on group composition. Our qualitative findings further reveal how different aspects of social presence embedded in platform design (i.e., user representation, interactivity, and response visibility) contribute to heightened conformity behaviour. Our results provide evidence of the organic manifestation of conformity in online groups discussing subjective content and confirm the effect of platform design on online conformity behaviour. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of our findings on how future online platforms can be designed accounting for conformity influences.
... Indeed, people with a high need to belong (related to the need for significance) were more likely than their low-need-to-belong counterparts to contribute to their groups when these were large, but were less likely to contribute in small groups (De Cremer & Leonardelli, 2003), suggesting that people may perceive larger groups as better able than smaller groups to provide significance and belonging. Additionally, the desire to be liked increased conformity in large but not in small groups (Insko et al., 1985). ...
The 3N model of radicalization posits that radicalization results from the confluence of the need for significance, the narrative, and the network. The network validates the narrative and rewards with significance those who adhere to it. Thus, it is critical to the radicalization process, leading scholars to suggest that no violent extremist truly acts alone. Similarly, understanding the role of the network is crucial to understanding and facilitating deradicalization, for one who is disillusioned with a violent extremist ideology may not leave their group if they lack an alternative group to replace it. This article discusses the power of the network in radicalization and deradicalization and proposes a novel theory of distinguishing between violent extremists who are more versus less influenced by their network, leading them to perpetrate violence in groups or on their own, respectively.
Мета – вивчити та дослідити характер зв’язку схильності до конформної поведінки із соціально-психологічною адаптованістю студентів-першокурсників. Методи: особистісний опитувальник «Конформність-навіювання» С.В. Клаучека та В.В. Деларю; методика діагностики самооцінки мотивації схвалення (шкала брехні) Д. Марлоу і Д. Крауна; методика «Самооцінка психологічної адаптивності» (модифікований варіант методики С.І. Болтівця); методика дослідження соціально-психологічної адаптації К. Роджерса–Р. Даймонда; багаторівневий особистісний опитувальник «Адаптивність» (МЛО-АМ), розроблений О.Г. Маклаковим і С.В. Чермяніним. Вибірку становили 60 осіб 1-го курсу (17–18 років), які навчаються у Дніпровському національному університеті імені Олеся Гончара. Результати. Наявний зв’язок між такими факторами схильності до конформної поведінки і соціально-психологічною адаптацією, як «самооцінка психологічної адаптивності», «емоційна комфортність», та мотивацією до схвалення. Тобто це можна пояснити так, що чим більш високими для студента є ці показники адаптивності, тим вищими є показники конформності чи мотивації схвалення. А також від’ємні кореляційні зв’язки отримано між показниками «ескапізм», «поведінкова регуляція», «особистісний адаптаційний потенціал», «моральна нормативність» та схильністю до конформної поведінки. Тобто чим більш високими у досліджуваних є ці показники, тим менші показники за шкалою конформності вони демонструють. Висновки. Конформна поведінка найчастіше спостерігається у студентів-першокурсників у період соціально-психологічної адаптації до умов навчання у ЗВО. Показники самооцінки психологічної адаптивності та емоційної комфортності можуть відігравати важливу роль у формуванні конформної поведінки та мотивації до схвалення. Результати вказують на існування зв’язку між соціально-психологічною адаптивністю, емоційною комфортністю, мотивацією до схвалення та схильністю до конформної поведінки.
In contemporary discourse, context matters for how people converse with one another about political topics. Discussion may occur face-to-face or online, topics of conversation may be controversial or less so, and gender dynamics may vary. We argue that men and women are affected differently by various contextual discussion factors. We employ a unique quasi-experiment that varies these factors and uses discourse analysis to examine patterns of gendered agreement and disagreement across seven exhaustive categories of response. These factors affect the likelihood of agreement by women and men, though gender-based differences are not dramatic. We do, however, find conditions that prompt men to be less agreeable than women. We also identify seven discrete rhetorical approaches to expressing agreement or disagreement in political discussion. Of these, three show evidence of gender-based patterns of usage. These findings have implications for how men and women use agreement strategies to cope with potential divisiveness in political discussion.
Automated driving technology is considered a disruptive innovation. Mixed traffic composed of level-3 automated vehicles (L3 AVs) and non-AVs will exist long before fully automated driving arrives. During this transition, drivers will be the first to use L3 AVs, so studying drivers’ behavioural intentions to use L3 AVs is vital. This paper focuses on the influence of social conformity and gender on drivers’ intentions to drive L3 AVs. Three hundred one participants completed an online questionnaire containing 1) demographic information, 2) a scale based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) under two scenarios (large-group scenario: 80% of drivers are driving AVs in the road, small-group scenario: 20% of drivers are driving AVs in the road), and 3) a scale measuring conformity tendency and personal innovativeness in information technology. In the large-group scenario, drivers have stronger intentions to drive L3 AVs, and there is no significant gender difference. In the small-group scenario, the male drivers’ driving intentions were significantly higher than those of the female drivers. The predictive model based on the TPB explained 81.1% and 64.8% of the variance in driving intention in the two scenarios, respectively. The three traditional variables (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behaviour control) of the TPB appeared to be the main predictors for the model. The results of this study provide some practical implications for manufacturers of AVs.
Online shopping platforms have gradually begun to use hierarchical loyalty programs to distinguish customers. Previous studies have focused mainly on the effect of such programs on loyalty and repurchase behavior, and little is known about how customer statuses in hierarchical loyalty programs affect their online product evaluations. Drawing on social status and social conformity theory, this study investigates the impact of customer status on the valence of online reviews. An instrumental variable is proposed to address the endogeneity issue. The results show that a customer's need for status leads to a negative rating bias when leaving online reviews. At the same time, people encounter social pressure from crowds. The need for social conformity can alleviate such rating bias. This study contributes to the understanding of the effect of social status on post-purchase behavior and provides practical implications for both managers and platforms.
A great deal of human behavior is motivated by the desire for acceptance and belonging, and a high proportion of people's emotional reactions stems from concerns with actual or potential social rejection. The pervasive quest for acceptance can be seen in the attention and effort people devote to their physical appearance, their efforts to be liked, achievement-related behaviors, conformity, accumulating resources that others need, and generally being the sort of person with whom others want to have social connections. Depending on the context, concerns with social acceptance are typically accompanied by emotions such as social anxiety, embarrassment, jealousy, hurt feelings, and guilt, as well as lowered self-esteem. In addition, people who feel inadequately valued and accepted may behave in ways to increase acceptance, aggress against those who rejected them, distance themselves from other people, and/or engage in symbolic efforts to increase their subjective sense of being accepted. Concerns with acceptance and belonging exert a pervasive, ongoing effect on human thought, behavior, and emotion.
Presents a formal model of social influence that integrates majority and minority influence processes within a single theoretical framework and uses computer simulations to model the group influence process. The Social Influence Model (SIM) predicts that as a faction increases in size, its impact increases and vice versa. The performance of the SIM is assessed by comparison with empirical findings from a meta-analysis of research on conformity, minority influence, and deviate rejection. The results indicate that influence is predominantly a function of the number of targets and sources of influence, both of which are incorporated into a nonlinear growth function that accurately predicts the amount of influence obtained in social influence studies. The consistency of the influence source was also an important predictor of influence; task type, group type, and response mode affected influence to a lesser degree. (58 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In Exp I 120 undergraduates viewed a videotape of 1 or 3 speakers presenting 1 or 3 arguments in favor of a counterattitudinal position. The 3-source/3-argument message produced significantly more persuasion than any of the other conditions, which did not differ from each other. It is suggested that each time a speaker appears, the recipient "gears up" to process the message and that if either speaker or argument is repeated, further thinking about the arguments is minimal. Exp II (30 Ss) excluded an alternative to this processing interpretation by showing that Ss exposed to the multiple-source/multiple-argument message did not infer that the pool of proproposal arguments was larger than that inferred by other Ss. In Exp III (100 Ss), Ss exposed to 3 compelling arguments purportedly produced by 3 different persons generated more positive thoughts and were more persuaded than Ss who read the same high quality arguments presumably generated by 1 person. However, Ss exposed to 3 weak arguments purportedly produced by 3 different persons generated more negative thoughts and were less persuaded than Ss who read the same low quality arguments attributed to 1 source. Overall, results indicate that increasing the number of sources of a message increases thinking about the message content. This increased thinking can result in either increased or decreased persuasion, depending on the cogency of the message arguments. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews 2 traditional lines of research on social influence processes—research on conformity, which looks at the influence of the majority on a passive minority, and research on innovation, which considers the influence of active minorities on a silent majority. A new theory of social impact is examined that views social influence as resulting from forces operating in a social force field. It proposes that influence by either a majority or a minority will be a multiplicative function of the strength, immediacy, and number of its members. It is suggested that social impact theory offers a general model of social influence processes that integrates previous theoretical formulations and empirical findings and accounts for the reciprocal influence of majorities and minorities. Thus, by viewing social influence as a unitary concept, social impact theory permits comparisons between conformity and innovation and predicts the relative magnitude of their effects. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Taking part in an experiment is "a special form of social interaction." The S plays a role and places himself under the control of the E; he may agree "to tolerate a considerable degree of discomfort, boredom, or actual pain, if required to do so." The very high degree of control inherent in the experimental situation itself may lead to difficulties in experimental design. The S "must be recognized as an active participant in any experiment." With understanding of factors intrinsic to experimental context, experimental method in psychology may become a more effective tool in predicting behavior in nonexperimental contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes the development of a scale to assess individual differences in self-consciousness. Construction of the scale involved testing the 38 initial items with 130 female and 82 male undergraduates. A principal components factor analysis of the data yielded 3 factors accounting for 43% of the variance: Private Self-Consciousness, Public Self-Consciousness, and Social Anxiety. The final version of the scale, which contained 23 items, was administered to several groups of undergraduates (N = 668) to obtain norms, test-retest (2 wks), subscale correlation, and reliability data. Test-retest reliabilities were .84 for the Public Self-Consciousness scale, .79 for the Private Self-Consciousness scale, .73 for the Social Anxiety scale, and .80 for the total score. Public Self-Consciousness correlated moderately with both Private Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety, while the correlation of Private Self-Consciousness with Social Anxiety fluctuated around zero. No sex differences in scores were observed. Implications for research and therapy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reports on the relationship between the size of a stimulus crowd, standing on a busy city street looking up at a building, and the response of passersby. As the size of the stimulus crowd was increased a greater proportion of passersby adopted the behavior of the crowd. Ss were 1424 pedestrians. The results suggest a modification of the J. S. Coleman and J. James (see 36:1) model of the size of free-forming groups to include a contagion assumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Proposes a theory of social impact specifying the effect of other persons on an individual. According to the theory, when other people are the source of impact and the individual is the target, impact should be a multiplicative function of the strength, immediacy, and number of other people. Furthermore, impact should take the form of a power function, with the marginal effect of the
Nth other person being less than that of the (
N–2)th. When other people stand with the individual as the target of forces from outside the group, impact should be divided such that the resultant is an inverse power function of the strength, immediacy, and number of persons standing together. The author reviews relevant evidence from research on conformity and imitation, stage fright and embarrassment, news interest, bystander intervention, tipping, inquiring for Christ, productivity in groups, and crowding in rats. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Investigated the effect of three different variables on agreement effects in p-o-x triads. The subjects were 740 male and female undergraduates at the University of North Carolina. Experiment 1 found that assumed similarity modified the agreement effect—but only on cognitive rating scales (expectancy, consistency, stability). Experiment 2 found that assumed knowledgeability of o regarding × modified the agreement effect on both affective (pleasantness, harmony) and cognitive (expectancy, consistency, stability) scales. Experiment 3 found that a manipulation of o to p liking that was either consistent or inconsistent with p and o agreement modified the agreement effect primarily on the affective scales.
• As the title suggests, this book examines the psychology of interpersonal relations. In the context of this book, the term "interpersonal relations" denotes relations between a few, usually between two, people. How one person thinks and feels about another person, how he perceives him and what he does to him, what he expects him to do or think, how he reacts to the actions of the other--these are some of the phenomena that will be treated. Our concern will be with "surface" matters, the events that occur in everyday life on a conscious level, rather than with the unconscious processes studied by psychoanalysis in "depth" psychology. These intuitively understood and "obvious" human relations can, as we shall see, be just as challenging and psychologically significant as the deeper and stranger phenomena. The discussion will center on the person as the basic unit to be investigated. That is to say, the two-person group and its properties as a superindividual unit will not be the focus of attention. Of course, in dealing with the person as a member of a dyad, he cannot be described as a lone subject in an impersonal environment, but must be represented as standing in relation to and interacting with another person. The chapter topics included in this book include: Perceiving the Other Person; The Other Person as Perceiver; The Naive Analysis of Action; Desire and Pleasure; Environmental Effects; Sentiment; Ought and Value; Request and Command; Benefit and Harm; and Reaction to the Lot of the Other Person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
• As the title suggests, this book examines the psychology of interpersonal relations. In the context of this book, the term "interpersonal relations" denotes relations between a few, usually between two, people. How one person thinks and feels about another person, how he perceives him and what he does to him, what he expects him to do or think, how he reacts to the actions of the other--these are some of the phenomena that will be treated. Our concern will be with "surface" matters, the events that occur in everyday life on a conscious level, rather than with the unconscious processes studied by psychoanalysis in "depth" psychology. These intuitively understood and "obvious" human relations can, as we shall see, be just as challenging and psychologically significant as the deeper and stranger phenomena. The discussion will center on the person as the basic unit to be investigated. That is to say, the two-person group and its properties as a superindividual unit will not be the focus of attention. Of course, in dealing with the person as a member of a dyad, he cannot be described as a lone subject in an impersonal environment, but must be represented as standing in relation to and interacting with another person. The chapter topics included in this book include: Perceiving the Other Person; The Other Person as Perceiver; The Naive Analysis of Action; Desire and Pleasure; Environmental Effects; Sentiment; Ought and Value; Request and Command; Benefit and Harm; and Reaction to the Lot of the Other Person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)