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Home , Collectivism, Conformity, Cultural psychology, Individualistic culture

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Subject

Paper No and Title Paper No 8: Cross-

Module No and Title Module No 26: across

Module Tag PSY_P8_M26

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Learning Outcomes 2. Introduction 3. Classical Studies on Conformity 4. for Conformity 3.1 informational influence 3.2 normative influence 5. Factors affecting conformity 6. Conformity and 7. Summary

PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures

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1. Learning Outcomes

After studying this module, you shall be able to:

 Know – after reading the module, we would come to know that the degree to which we conform depends also is affected by our culture.  Learn – we would learn the of conformity with reasons that makes us to conform. We would also learn the various factors that affect conformity and how culture becomes one of the important factors in affecting conformity.  Identify – we would be able to identify the for the division of cultures into individualistic and collectivistic. We would also identify the reasons of their conformity.  Evaluate- we would be able to evaluate that culture is one of the factor that affects conformity but it in itself is very powerful to influence on to conform.

2. Introduction

Imagine a normal day in college; you are hungry; it is only the middle of the month and you’re left with just the last bit of your pocket money. You want to eat in the canteen on campus, yet somehow you end up eating in an expensive cafe because all your friends wanted to eat out. If you have experienced this, or something similar, then you are already familiar with one of the most potent kinds of , conformity.

Conformity refers to a type of social influence wherein people change their attitude and/or behaviour in order to adhere to the widely accepted social norms. However, it might be interesting to note that changes in overt behavior and attitude caused by conformity do not imply changes in internal concepts such as beliefs. This desire to behave more like the majority is driven primarily by two kinds of social norms: descriptive norms- norms that describe how most people behave in a given situation and injunctive norms- norms that tell us how we ought to behave in specific social situations.

Many social norms provide a basis for predictable interaction and efficient decision making; the benefits associated with require some level of conformity to those norms. Indeed, failures to conform to the enduring group or cultural norms are often viewed by others not merely as an embarrassing but as a contemptible moral transgression. But even though it might appear to curb personal freedom to some extent, conformity plays a very important role in ensuring that we do not end up in utter social chaos.

3. Classical Studies on Conformity

Although the first to study conformity was Jenness (1932), the first truly groundbreaking and widely popular series of experiments on conformity was conducted by (1951, 1955).

PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures

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3.1 Asch’s Line Judgement Task In this classic experiment Asch asked participants to judge which one of three comparison lines matched a standard line in length. The participants were present in the experimental setting with several others who responded to the perceptual judgment task before them. Unknown to the participant, all other fellow ‘participants’ were in fact the assistants of the researcher, instructed to respond to the task in a predetermined manner. On twelve out of eighteen trails (known as critical trials), the researcher’s accomplices gave responses that were clearly incorrect. Thus the participants in Asch’s experiment faced a crucial dilemma: whether to stick to their own judgement or go along with the majority?

Figure 1. Figure showing the standard line (to the left) and three comparison lines (A, B, and C) in Asch’s Line Judgment Experiment.

Results indicated that a large majority of the participants in the experimental group choose conformity. In total, 76 percent of the participants went along with the accomplices’ wrong answer at least once. In contrast, among the participants in a control group, a mere 5 percent made such errors.

Asch's work on conformity has received widespread support and acceptance. It has been replicated in many studies, under a wide variety of conditions. Asch's results were extremely important to the field of psychology in two crucial ways. First, the real power of the social pressure to conform was demonstrated clearly and scientifically for the first time. Second, this early research sparked a huge wave of additional studies that continue later. A line of criticism commonly heard concerns whether Asch's findings can be generalized to situations in the real world. It must be pointed out, however, that although real-life matters of conformity can certainly be more meaningful, it is equally likely that the pressures for conformity from groups in the real world are also proportionately stronger.

3.2 Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect Experiment Sherif’s experiment (1936) was designed with the aim to demonstrate that people conform to group norms when they are placed in an ambiguous situation. He placed participants in a dark room with a small dot of light projected onto a screen

PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures

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and the participants were asked to guess how far the point of light moved. In fact the point of light was stationary and only appeared to be moving due to an optical illusion. He discovered that when participants were asked to judge individually, their estimates of the distance of movement of light varied considerably. However, when these participants were grouped into triads, the estimates of distance converged towards the group norm. Sherif thus concluded that in ambiguous situations people look to others to seek and guidance in order to take the right decision or indulge in correct behaviour.

Sherif has been criticized for using a situation that was ambiguous, unusual, and unlikely to reflect a real life situation. His research was criticized to be artificial and lacking ecological validity.

Both these studies raised curtains from the strong pressures to confirm that people face in day-to- day social situations and established fertile grounds for other researchers to investigate the nature of conformity and explore its causes, effects, and limits.

4. What Causes Conformity

The fact that most people conform to societal or group norms more often than not, draws to the bases of conformity. Researchers including Deutsch and Gerard (1955) and Insko (1985) have pointed out two major reasons for why people often choose to “go along” or confirm. They have explained conformity by drawing attention to two essential possessed by all human beings: a wish to be liked by others and a wish to be right or accurate. In addition, Buehler and Griffin (1994) have indicated towards the cognitive processes that cause us to look at conformity as entirely warranted after we have engaged in it.

4.1 Normative Social Influence

Much research in social and interpersonal attraction has focused on the human tendency to like those who are similar to us in one or more ways. Hence, quite often when we want to be liked by others, we make a conscious effort to appear to be more like them by agreeing with them or behaving in ways that match their behaviour. One important reason why we conform then is because we know that it will help us in winning the sanction and acceptance that is desired by us. In the introductory example, for instance, the person goes out to eat in an expensive restaurant as s/he wants to continue being a part of her/his friend circle by matching their behaviour and choices. This cause of conformity is known as normative social influence.

Normative influence is particularly effective since people who do not conform to the group are more likely to be made fun of rejected or even be punished by some of the group members. For instance in the classic line study by Asch (1956), the subjects conformed to the group not because of the fact that they believed the group consensus reflected but because it was easier to go with the group than having to face the consequences of going against it (Crutchfield, 1955). Correspondingly, when people have a heightened desire to affiliate with a group, mimicry tends to increase (Lakin & Chartrand, 2003).

PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures

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4.2 Informational Social Influence

Life in the social world is and often beyond objective measurement capable of giving an accurate estimate of right and wrong behaviour. This is why we frequently look to others to try to make sure that our opinions and behaviours are correct. In situations where we are unsure of the accuracy of our own views and actions, other people’s opinions and behaviours represent the for us and we refer to them as guides for our own behaviour. This basis of conformity is called informational social influence as it is based upon our desire to be right by depending on others as a source of information about certain aspects of the social world. Hence, when people have an elevated to be accurate and find themselves in relatively ambiguous situations, conformity becomes increasingly likely (Baron, Vandello, & Brunsman, 1996; Levine, Higgins, & Choi, 2000). When you change your initial opinion on an issue after hearing an opposing view from someone whom you deem to be highly knowledgeable, it is this kind of conformity that you are displaying.

4. Factors on Conformity

The evidence that we have considered so far suggests that humans have a strong tendency to confirm, but even so it is clear that not everybody confirms, nor does one person succumb to conformity pressures across diverse conditions. So what is it that determines when is most likely to confirm? Research suggests that many factors play a role; some of these have been discussed here. Cohesiveness Cohesiveness refers to all the factors that hold group members together as a coherent social entity (Baron & Byrne). When cohesiveness is high, i.e. when we highly being a part of a particular group, pressures of conformity are equally magnified. Group size Conformity tends to increase as group size increases. Although Asch concluded that such effects are shown only up till group strength of three members beyond which conformity seems to level off, subsequent research (e.g., Bond & Smith, 1996) reported that these effects persist even up till group sizes of eight members and beyond. Unanimity seem more likely to confirm when the rest of the group has a unanimous opinion or stand. Group status Conformity to high status groups is relatively higher than to low status groups. Culture Individuals in Collectivistic cultures display a greater tendency to conform than those in individualistic cultures. Gender Gender differences established and exercised by societal norms exert strong influences on the way men and women respond to social influence. Research suggests that women are more likely to confirm when on surveillance relative to when they are not. Age Perhaps driven by informational social influence, younger people are more likely to give in to conformity pressures Importance of stimuli The normative focus theory (Cialdini, Kahlgren, & Reno, 1991) suggests that the influence of norms on behaviour is mediated by how important or central the is to the person at the time the behavior occurs. When participants were told that their responses to the questions in a study will be used for designing the safety signals in an aircraft, conformity decreased substantially suggesting that the need to confirm may decline when a task is considered critical. PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures

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Clarity of stimuli As demonstrated by Sherif’s experiment, people are more likely to confirm when they find themselves in unfamiliar and ambiguous situations.

Minority A dissenting minority may also reduce the pressures to confirm. A minority which holds fast to its position against the majority group compels group members to rethink their decision and thus lessens conformity.

5. Conformity and Culture

In the previous section we mentioned briefly about the differential effects that different cultures exert inadvertently on the extent to which its members confirm. Here we will discuss in detail the relationship between culture and conformity.

One of the most widely known cultural distinctions in conformity is made on the basis of how much emphasis a culture places on the as opposed to the others. Individualistic cultures hold personal independence, uniqueness, and competitiveness as desirable values. Personal self is placed above family, kinship, and and thus the pressure to confirm is seen to a lesser degree in such cultures. Collectivistic cultures, on the other hand, value interdependence, sharing, common interests, family, kinship, and society above the personal self. In such cultures, any person displaying individuality is perceived to be like a sore thumb sticking out and hurting the uniformity of the group. There is a lot of research which supports this distinction. For example, Smith and Bond (1998) discovered cultural differences in conformity between Western and Eastern countries. Westerners (such as people from America and the UK) were more likely to be individualistic and didn’t want to be perceived as being similar to everybody else.

Bond and Smith (1996) analyzed the results of 113 studies that had used Asch’s line-judging task in 17 different countries. The countries were then categorized in terms of the degree to which they would be considered individualistic versus collectivistic in orientation. They reported a significant relationship between conformity and individualistic versus collectivistic cultures, such that conformity was found to be higher in collectivistic than in individualistic cultures.

Triandis (1990) explains that in individualistic cultures, most people’s behaviour is determined by personal goals that overlap only slightly with the goals of collective entities such as family, neighbours, work group, tribe, political allies, fellow countrymen, and the . When a conflict arises between personal and group goals, in individualistic cultures it is considered acceptable for the to place personal goals ahead of collective goals. Conversely, in collectivist cultures social behaviour is determined largely by goals shared with some collective, and if there is a conflict between personal and collective goals, it is considered socially desirable to place collective goals ahead of personal goals.

In another study Kim and Markus (1999) analyzed advertisements from popular magazines in the United States and in Korea to examine if any differences existed in their emphasis on uniqueness and conformity. As seen in the figure below, they found that while magazine ads in the U.S. focused on uniqueness (“Choose your own view!” and “Individualize!”) Korean ads tended to emphasize more on themes of conformity (“Seven out of ten people use this product” and “Our company is working toward building a ”).

PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures

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 Figure 2. Culture and conformity: Kim and Markus’ findings indicating that U.S. magazine ads tended to focus on uniqueness whereas Korean ads tended to focus more on conformity.

Berry (1967, 1974, 1979; Berry & Annis, 1974) has offered yet another explanation for the differences in conformity caused by cultural differences. Taking the mode of sustenance into account, Berry suggested that societal values are determined, to a large extent, by the society’s mode of sustenance and in turn influence conformity. According to Barry, Child, and Bacon (1954) qualities such as obedience and responsibility are emphasized upon in the processes of high food accumulating such as agricultural and pastoral societies. On the other hand, societies which are built upon practices that allow independence and movement, such as hunting and fishing, lay more emphasis on self reliance, , personal achievement, and independence. Highly disciplined societies thus show higher levels of conformity. Berry's (1967, 1974, 1979) theory also suggests a link between cultural values and conformity, stressing the fact that cultures of subsistence economies give in to conformity more as they are rather free from outside influences. When traditional sample were compared with those who had been exposed to Westernization (through Western education, urbanization, and wage employment), Berry found that exposure to Western concepts and values led to a weakening of traditional norms and less cross-cultural variations in conformity (Berry, 1979).

Asch’s classical study acted as a catalyst for a plethora of related research. Various studies done on the lines of Asch’s experiment have reported significant cultural differences in conformity.

Milgram (1962) found that Norwegian students confirmed more than French students. In Zimbabwe (Whittaker & Meade, 1967), Ghana (McKissack, 1971) and Fiji (Chandra, 1973), people showed higher levels of conformity as compared to low levels of conformity found in Germany (Timaeus, 1968). There is some evidence for greater conformity in Chinese (Huang & Harris, 1973; Meade & Barnard, 1973) and Brazilians (Sistrunk & Clement, 1970; Sistrunk, Clement, & Guenther, 1971) when they were compared with Americans. A small and inconsistent bit of literature also suggests differences between Blacks and Whites in the United States. Iscoe, Williams, and Harvey (1964) found less conformity among Black women compared with White women, there being little difference among men, and yet both Sistrunk (1971) and Long (1970) found that Blacks conformed more than Whites. Schneider (1970) found no overall PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures

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difference, although Whites were more influenced by a White majority than a Black majority, whereas the ethnic composition of the majority had little effect for Blacks. This shows that culture dominates in the domain of conformity.

Finally, based on the analysis of attitude surveys conducted twice (first in 1967-1969 and again in 1971-1973) in the subsidiaries of a large multinational U.S. corporation, Hofstede (1980) reported that as opposed to individualistic cultures where there is a clear distinction between the self and the other, the society, and the larger cultural group, people in collectivistic cultures derive a considerable portion of their identity from significant others, groups, and the society. Collectivistic cultures emphasize group decision making rather than individual decisions and there is an emotional element involved with membership in organizations and institutions, consequently increasing the pressures to confirm.

6. Summary

 Conforming to others in a group is important as they norms for to be followed and provides us information for those issues for which we are ignorant.  Conforming to others is affected by cultures. It is believed that some cultures conform more than others. A lot of differences have been found between cultures on the lines of and .  Researches done over various countries have found that individualistic countries are low on conformity as compared to collectivistic countries. The differences could be due to the fact that individualistic and collectivistic countries have differences in their values, importance they lay on the group and their identification with them.  In , people are more self-made and self-dependent and they taught to take their own decisions and owe the responsibility of it. Thus in such cultures, people conform less. On the other side in collectivistic cultures, people are interdependent for everything and they take decisions collectively. Hence in such cultures, people conform more.

PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 8: Cross- cultural Psychology Module No 26: Conformity across Cultures