Conformity
IB PsychologyΒ· Human relationshipsΒ· 14 min read
1. Core concept
Conformity is changing your behaviour or judgement to match a group, even when the group is wrong. Asch's line-judgement studies famously showed that people will give an obviously incorrect answer just to go along with a unanimous majority. It is driven by two motives: normative (to be accepted or avoid standing out) and informational (assuming the group knows better). Conformity helps explain group behaviours from harmless fads to dangerous collective errors.
2. Key studies
IB Psychology answers must be supported by named studies. Learn these to cite as evidence:
Asch (1951)
On critical trials 35.7% of responses conformed to a unanimous but clearly wrong majority, and 74% of participants conformed at least once. β The classic demonstration of NORMATIVE conformity β going along with the majority against clear evidence to fit in.
Salomons et al. (2021)
People conformed to robots, changing their answers when robots disagreed, and showed both informational and normative conformity. β Shows conformity operates through BOTH motives and even extends to humanβmachine groups, evidencing its generality.
3. Evaluation (AO3)
Strength β robust and fundamental β The effect replicates across contexts and even to non-human agents (robots: Salomons) and other species (fish: Pike & Laland, 2010), so conformity is a basic social process rather than a lab artefact.
Limitation β interpretation & culture bias β Friend, Rafferty & Bramel (1990) found textbooks overstate conformity β in Asch about two-thirds of responses were actually INDEPENDENT β and conformity rates vary with culture and era, so 'people conform' is easily over-generalised.
4. Scope
5. Common Pitfalls
Wrong move:
Conformity means people are weak, and 'everyone conforms'.
Why:
A frequently penalised misconception in IB Psychology exams.
Correct move:
Asch showed conformity is real but far from universal β most responses were independent β and it depends on factors like unanimity, group size and culture. The 'everyone conforms' reading is itself a reporting bias.
Going deeper
- Conformitythe base process of conformity is Sociocultural approach SOC_3.
- Compliance techniquescompliance is influence from a direct request rather than a group norm (HR_2).
- Social identity theorysocial identity theory explains why an in-group's norms carry such weight (HR_5).