Discuss factors influencing conformity (for example, culture, groupthink, risky shift, minority influence).

Our social world is very complex. With humans being very complicated, the social world will consist of a lot of information some unnecessary. !s our capacity of processing information only goes so far, our social world is re"uired to be simplified and made easier for us and one way of avoiding lumps of in information is through generali#ing and socially categori#ing certain attributes in a particular manner$ in other words, stereotyping. %onformity plays "uite a significant role in stereotyping. &t is when a person alters'changes their behavior, attitude or belief because of a social influence and changes the above to match and line up with their social beliefs and most importantly, their cultural norms. Factor 1: Unanimity: (he likelihood of conformity increases when everyone agrees on one specific point and even if one of the participants (confederates) disagreed, the confederates were still less likely to conform. Supporting Study: Asch Paradigm (1951) (he study was carried out as the sub)ect taking their paces in a room with * other confederates and the researcher. (he sub)ect was told to believe that the other participants were +)ust like them,. (he sub)ect was placed on the second last seat so they will be the second last to give an answer. (he group of sub)ect and confederates were asked to select the line on the second card that matched the line on the first card. (here were -. sets of cards in total, some of which had lines that were completely different in length, others are similar in length. %onfederates were instructed to answer correctly on some of the cards but answer incorrectly for most. /esults of the study are as follows0 123 conformed at least once to the wrong answer. 453 conformed to more than half of the wrong answers. 563 did not conform at all. &t was concluded that conformity did happened and those who did not conform sparked further research. Evaluation: 7ow ecological validity due to lab conditions %ontrolled environment, therefore, the confounding variables were removed. 8eaningless stimuli to conform 9exist, only male participants were used. %ultural bias, only people from the :9 were used therefore it cannot be generali#ed to the whole population it can only be generali#ed for the most of the males in the :9 ;thical concerns0 the sub)ects were lied to in the beginning, however, once the research was done, they were debriefed. !sch<s study done in -=2- shows how confederates conformed to the ma)ority and they disregard the one who doesn<t agree. >owever in another study done by !sch, different results were obtained0

Supporting Study: Aschs Paradigm 9ame procedure as before, except during certain point of the experiment, one confederate was instructed to disagree with the ma)ority, even if the answer of the ma)ority was wrong. /esults0 %onformity rate dropped significantly &n conclusion, consistency and unanimity is crucial for conformity to happen as otherwise it will not work. ;valuation0 7ow ecological validity due to lab conditions %ontrolled environment, therefore, the confounding variables were removed. 8eaningless stimuli to conform 9exist, only male participants were used. %ultural bias, only people from the :9 were used therefore it cannot be generali#ed to the whole population it can only be generali#ed for the most of the males in the :9 ;thical concerns0 the sub)ects were lied to in the beginning, however, once the research was done, they were debriefed. ?add under ethical concerns0 taking the confederates right to have their own opinion as they were +instructed, at one point of time. ;ven though this was done for the experiment, it is still wrong as the confederates should be able to do what they believe is right and due to the instruction the data could have been altered. !nother study which shows where the confederates did not conform to the ma)ority is as follows0 Factor ! "inority in#lu$nc$0 ! type of conformity when the ma)ority of a group is influenced by the beliefs or behavior of a minority. (he ma)ority is influenced through conversion. (he difference between the ma)ority and minority group lead to a cognitive conflict. (his may force the ma)ority to reassess their beliefs. (he most important influencing factor of minority influence is consistency$ that the minority group does not change their opinion over time Supporting study: "oscovici (19%9): ! group of six people looked at a number of blue colored discs. (wo of the group members were confederates and repeatedly insisted that the blue colored discs were green. %ompared to the control group, the ma)ority were more likely to agree with the minority.

Evaluation: @ositive aspects0 (he research was well controlled and has been done again in -=.A. Begative aspects0 %annot be generali#ed to the whole population and it has ecological validity issues %onsistency is not always an influencing factor of minority influence. Other factors are important as well such as flexibility. &n the studies above, both the sides of conformity have been shown. >owever on a more general level, Cond D 9mith did a study on cross culture and they found out that collectivistic cultures ( in which people are often integrated into strong and cohesive in groups) had higher rates of conformity. Factor &: 'ultur$: (he cultural dimension of individualism collectivism is related to levels of conformity in different cultures. %ollectivist cultures are more conforming than individualist cultures. Supporting study: (ond ) Smith (199%): &n a review of -44 conformity studies across the world, Cond D 9mith discovered a tendency that collectivistic cultures had higher rates of conformity. %onformity studies in the :.9. show a decline in conformity rates over time. Evaluation: @ositive aspects0 /esearch is capable of making good generali#ations. Cond D 9mith reviews well controlled research. Cerry<s research has strong credibility Begative aspects0 (he experimental studies reviewed in Cond D 9mith may have problems with ecological validity, !merica was overrepresented in the study (he studies only show a correlation but not a causal relationship. (he relationship is weak 'onclusion: %ultural values of individualism and minority influence seem to influence conformity in groups.