Consumption behavior and the aspiration for conformity and consistency.

The (socio-)psychological concepts of individual aspiration for conformity and consistency are integrated into the rational choice framework. By using this integrative approach, it is shown that, after a shock, the aspiration for conformity results in a steady state that deviates from the homo oeconomicus's behavior toward the consumption of the peer group, whereas the aspiration for consistency leads to the result that the steady-state consumption is not reached at once. With the combination of these effects, a new consumption path is derived. After a shock, the individual consumption converges step by step to the new steady-state consumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of different conditions of acceptance upon conformity to group norms.

"In experimental groups of Ss, 2 different norms were developed: one concerning a social value judgment; the other, a simple perceptual judgment. The Ss were experimentally made to feel different degrees of being accepted by the other members and were then given opportunities and incentives to deviate from the norms. Subsequent conformity, participation, and attitudes toward the group were studied in relation to the different conditions of acceptance. The results point to 2 contrasting patterns of conformity evolved by different conditions of acceptance. The first appears to consist of a high degree of genuine adherence to the norms… . The second pattern is marked by high conformity only under public conditions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two forms of social conformity: Acquiescence and conventionality.

The "study was designed to obtain some objective measure of both kinds of conformity… the dynamic process of immediate conformity, termed acquiescence; and long term results of conformity to cultural norms, termed conventionality." 22 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Taylor MAS and group conformity pressure.

Ss with low anxiety "tend to question their own judgment more but still show 'normal conformity,' under strong pressure conditions… [those with high level of anxiety] become somewhat hostile and rigid and less amenable to conformity influence. Some general support is thus given to the findings… that increase in emotional tension reduces the effectiveness of persuasive communications." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Status and conformity to pressures in informal groups.

Effect of group status on patterns of conformity was measured. Psychophysical judgments were made under varying conditions, one involving verbal suggestions. The least conforming were the high and low status individuals in the group; the 2nd-from-the-top status man was most conforming to judgments of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Three situational determinants of conformity to social norms.

"The present study has been concerned with the determinants of conformity to group norms. The variables under investigation were: (a) the extent of initial disagreement between the individual's and the group's opinion (known as 'distance'); (b) the number of occasions the individual was exposed to the group norm (known as 'exposures'); and (c) the size of the group… . In general, greater distance makes for greater conformity… . Conformity occurs within the first few exposures to the group norm." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social setting and conformity to a legal requirement.

The study noted "the effect on a subject's behavior of observing others conform or fail to conform to a legal requirement." 4229 male drivers and 1004 female drivers of passenger cars were observed turning during the periods of the study. "Observations made under normal traffic conditions were analyzed to determine the influence on the signalling behavior of automobile drivers of the signalling behavior of other drivers. A weak but significant positive relationship was found between observation of conformity of others to a legal requirement and self-conformity." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group participation and conformity.

Contends that the mass media perceive the treat of subliminal perception as a way psychologists are considered engineers of conformity. Psychologists who work with problems of groups and group development have received particular attention in this regard. In general the kinds of experience which people undergo in group training laboratories and in sensitivity training are said to make for slavish adhesion to the group. The author discusses conducting a 2-day group training laboratory for leaders of student organizations at a small college. Small groups with the trainer were thrown upon their own resources and allowed to work on the problems they chose. Intermittently the trainer interpreted what was going on in the way of group process. There were reports of a good bit of subjective involvement on the part of the student leaders who participated. The purpose of the training laboratory was to determine whether there were attitude changes concurrent with the training. It is concluded that this kind of group experience which is designed to open people's receptors to the reactions of others may actually make the persons more independent in their attitudes. Perhaps it was that these young people, who were all social acquaintances of each other, had enough doubt about where they stood with each other to inhibit the frankest kind of interaction. Once they developed more sensitivity to each other and clearer perceptions of other's feelings, their attitudes changed to favor franker and freer self-expression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task difficulty and conformity pressures.

This study using 60 Ss showed that conformity pressures are more easily exerted when the person is poorly informed with respect to questions of general information. When certain of the correct answers, the person is more easily able to resist pressures, but when uncertain he is more prone to use supplemental external information as the basis for making responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and situational determinants of conformity.

"This study investigated the relationships between dispositional tendencies to respond to interpersonal communications in terms of either (a) the source of the communication, or (b) the message or content of the communication, and yielding to group influence as a function of (a) the amount of discrepancy between group judgment and the individual's own judgment, and (b) the difficulty of the behavioral task in which the individual is engaged. A source-oriented group and a message-oriented group of S's were differentiated on the basis of their habitual manner of interpreting interpersonally communicated information by means of objective analysis of sentence completions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal affect and conformity behavior in schizophrenics.

A group of 28 schizophrenics Ss was equated with a group of 28 normal Ss on the factors of age and education. Each S was then tested as to the number of affectual relationships he produced on 4 Thematic Apperception Test cards. A measure of his conformity to social influence was obtained by a measure of his behavior in a group situation in which he was asked to compare the length of lines in an optical illusion study. An analysis of the data by means of multiple X2 design showed a significant interaction among all 3 factors: mental health, conformity, and affect. The factors of mental health and conformity interacted to a greater extent than did any other 2 factors taken together. Conformity and affect were more closely related to the factor of mental health than they were to each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of perceived dependency relationships upon conformity to group expectations.

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that "group members perceiving themselves as interdependent for their reward attainment become highly motivated toward the group task." Results generally are in accord with several predictions, one of which is that: "Members of groups who are instrumentally interdependent become more highly motivated toward the group task than Ss who can achieve their goals independently of the others in the group." Another prediction supported by results is that: "Under conditions of instrumental independence, Ss who are told that both they and their teammates can attain a valued goal through the group activity become more highly task motivated than Ss who are told either that only S or Ss partner can attain this goal." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Involvement and communication discrepancy as determinants of opinion conformity.

"This research studied the relationship between conformity and (a) the extent of the discrepancy between the opinions of a communicator and a recipient and (b) the degree of involvement of the recipient. These variables are central to a dissonance theory analysis of the social influence process, as well as to many previous investigations of attitude change. It can be derived from the theory that opinion change increases with increases in both involvement and discrepancy between communicator and recipient." "… opinion conformity [did increase]… as a function of involvement and discrepancy. This theory with its consideration of the tension-producing effects of these variables, provides a sound framework for the understanding of some of the dynamics of social influence." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization of experimentally reinforced conformity.

The study investigated whether experimentally reinforced conformity, using objective stimuli, would generalize to subjective stimuli. Using the Crutchfield apparatus, E informed Ss that the false group consensus was correct on objective stimuli. Enhanced conformity to group pressure was exhibited on objective stimuli receiving such authoritative confirmation of the group. Results further showed that this experimentally reinforced conformity generalized to other objective and subjective material on which feedback was not given. An attempt to produce greater generalization by creating, through instructions, high psychological similarity among stimuli proved inconclusive. Females showed greater generalization of conformity than males. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coercive power and forces affecting conformity.

"In a laboratory experiment… Ss worked on a card sorting task under a supervisor who created various conditions of coercive power… . It was hypothesized that the supervisor's inductions would set up punishment forces and opposing resisting forces both of which would determine S's conformity… . It is concluded that punishment forces and resistance forces are independent determinants of conformity to coercive power." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality correlates of social conformity.

A group of 89 female social welfare case workers were administered the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey and a social conformity scale developed by the author. The latter comprised 37 items utilizing the direction of perception technique of attitude measurement. For the selected sample, the relationship between the two scales appeared to be limited to a correlation of -.47 between the social conformity scale and the Objectivity scale of the GZ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group cohesiveness, communication level, and conformity.

"The predictions that both communication level and conformity behavior within groups vary positively with the degree of group cohesiveness were clearly confirmed. Measures of the three variables under investigation were obtained, in a laboratory setting… . Data pertaining to the validity of a cohesiveness index, derived from the conceptual definition of cohesiveness, were also obtained… . the obtained results lend support to attempts to predict group behavior on the basis of… general behavior principles." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GE08L. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of conformity and attitude change.

"College males varying in affiliative motivation were subjected to a group-influence situation where their previously measured attitudes toward divorce was either unanimously opposed, or opposed with the exception of one supporter. The subject's public reaction (conformity) was measured, and also his private response (attitude change). The results indicated conformity to be a joint function of affiliative motivation and conditions of social support, with roughly similar but less significant results for attitude change." 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group size, prior experience, and conformity.

An effort was made to validate the findings of 2 previous workers regarding the effect of the size of a group (Asch, 1952) and prior experience (Mausner, 1953, 1954, 1957) upon conformity in the judgment of the length of lines. The results of Asch and Mausner were reproduced; there is a curvilinear relationship between size of a group (from 2 to 5) and influence on S to conform to what he believes are the estimates of the lines made by others. Prior experience in making judgments of the lines was also found to influence the accuracy of judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)