Imagine a stranger runs up to you in the grocery store and tells you to wear a purple shirt and sneakers to work the next day. The stranger gives no context and runs off to speak with another person. How likely are you to follow the request?
Now, imagine a small group of coworkers calls a meeting where they encourage everybody to wear purple shirts, jeans, and sneakers to work the next day to show support for your local sports team. Will you comply? How many of your colleagues do you think will participate?
Believe it or not, predicting the outcome in either situation relies on several factors, more commonly known as conformity. What drives people to conform, and what happens when people don’t fall in line?
What is Conformity?
Conformity is the tendency to adopt the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes of those around you. Usually, conformity involves an adjustment in your beliefs or behaviors in response to social pressures. The goal is to fit in with a larger social group.
Humans are social creatures by nature, with an innate desire to belong. Think about how you react to new situations. When you arrive at a new place of employment, you probably evaluate how people dress, interact with each other, and several other social cues to learn the office culture. You are conforming to the office’s culture.
What Group Pressure Looks Like
Group pressure can take many different forms. Often, as in the above example of starting a new job, group social pressure is a simple, innocent reaction to a new setting. In other cases, group pressure can be more malevolent, like teasing and bullying. Group pressure can either be overt or covert.
Overt or real social pressure occurs when a member or multiple members of the group are present. The push to conform is clear and driven by the presence of other people. An example would be a request to act, like sitting in a particular seat.
Most group pressure is covert or unconscious. The social influence is less tangible. Social norms, customs, and expectations create pressure to behave in such a way that you fit with the group. They are widely accepted, but unspoken expectations about how to behave.
The impact of group pressure changes as we age. For instance, children are less susceptible to group pressure than teenagers. The older we get, the pressure to conform grows stronger. Further, the tactics to ensure compliance evolve to encourage “correct” behavior to fit with the group.
The Difference Between Conformity and Obedience
Though conformity and obedience are closely related, they are two very different things. It is critical to understand that these terms are not interchangeable. Conformity is an adjustment of behavior to go along with a group. On the other hand, obedience refers to following orders given by authority figures.
Social pressure is the driving factor of conformity. It involves a majority and a minority, and the authority is indirect and usually intangible. When an individual conforms, it means they are aligning thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors with the group norms.
Obedience is driven by the power of an authority figure or governing body and provides a system of order. People follow the directions or instructions from the authority figure out of respect or fear of punishment. It does not require a change in beliefs, thoughts, or behaviors.
To be clear, obedience and conformity are linked because they are similar social interactions. The most significant difference is that the majority group holds power in conformity, and an individual or minority holds power with obedience.
Types of Conformity
Conformity is a powerful type of social influence that can take different forms. In the 1950s, Herbert C. Kelman identified three separate types of conformity – compliance, identification, and internalization. In 1969, Leon Man added a fourth type known as ingratiational conformity.
Finding Group Acceptance Through Compliance
Compliance conformity means publicly agreeing with the majority but disagreeing with them privately. An individual may choose to go along with the group consensus to be accepted, but their behavior will change when they leave the group.
This is the most superficial form of conformity because it is only temporary. Usually the individual is driven to comply by a desire for a reward or fear of punishment. If the reward or punishment is removed, the individual’s compliance will vanish as well.
Achieve Genuine Acceptance Through Internalization
Internalization conformity occurs when an individual accepts the group’s norms because they are consistent with his or her values. In these cases, conformity is public and private, so the change in behavior permanent.
Join the Group Through Identification
Identification occurs when an individual adopts the expectations of a social role to join the group. There does not necessarily have to be an adjustment to private opinions, so this type of conformity is similar to compliance.
Professor Philip G. Zimbardo’s famous Stanford Prison Study gave insight into many psychological and sociological constructs, including conformity through identification.
The experiment involved middle-class college students who answered an ad for test subjects. They were randomly divided into two groups – prisoners and prison guards. Prisoners were arrested for various crimes, fingerprinted, and incarcerated in the test facility. Zimbardo charged the prison guards with caring for the prisoners.
In a short time and without instruction, the prison guards initiated psychological abuse of the prisoners who responded by taking the abuse. Both groups conformed their behaviors to align with their roles. The changes in behavior were so extreme that Zimbardo had to end the experiment earlier than planned.
The Reward for Ingratiational Conformity
Ingratiational conformity occurs when somebody conforms for acceptance and to gain social rewards instead of facing rejection. Group pressure is not an issue in this type of conformity because the individual is motivated by their social needs. Further, there is no threat of punishment, only the promise of social rewards.
What Causes People to Conform?
Conformity existed in the earliest human groups and remains a social construct to this day. Hunters and gatherers, early farmers, and even nomads exhibited some levels of conformity. Outliers were cast from the group and left to fend for themselves, which motivated others to conform.
Throughout history, religion is one of the most powerful forms of social influence. Religion has led to wars, mass conversions from one belief system to another, and even pushed people to flee their homelands.
Despite hundreds of years of human history to draw from, there is not a single, concise answer explaining what causes people to conform – instead several factors and variables determine whether or not an individual will conform to group norms.
Studying the Source of Conformity
Psychologists and sociologists remain intrigued by the human tendency to conform. Experiments on social influence date back to the early 1900s, long before the Stanford Prison Study.
The Sherif Conformity Experiment
One of the earliest and most famous experiments is Muzafer Sherif’s 1935 study. Sherif wanted to know if participants would conform to align with the group when faced with an ambiguous situation.
The experiment depended on the autokinetic effect, a visual illusion that gives the impression that a stationary object in a dark room is moving even though it is not. In Sherif’s experiment, participants sat in a dark room with a spot of light projected on a screen. They were asked to estimate how far the light moved.
Participants initially tested in a room alone and showed significant variation in their estimates. Sherif’s team then arranged the participants in groups of three. Further, the groups of three contained two people with similar estimates on the individual tests and one person whose individual estimate varied significantly from the other two.
Over several trials, Sherif found that groups would agree on an estimate. Even the participant whose individual estimate varied from the other two conformed to the group’s norm.
The Asch Conformity Study
Solomon Asch found fault with Sherif’s experiment. He felt that because Sherif’s autokinetic experiment had no correct answer, there could be no certainty that participants conformed. In 1951, Asch created a new experiment to test the same principles.
Asch’s conformity experiment sought to solve the ambiguity issue in Sherif’s study. He chose a vision test with three possible answers but only one correct solution. Asch then placed each participant in a room with seven actors. The participants remained clueless about the complicity of the other members of their groups.
Asch provided his participants with an image of a “target line” and a second image showing three lines of varying sizes. Participants had to identify which of the three lines matched the length of the target line.
The actors followed their private instructions, and before entering the room, agreed to select the same answer. In twelve of the eighteen trials, the actors intentionally gave an obviously incorrect response. Each person stated their answer aloud with the real participant providing the last response.
Conclusions of the Asch Conformity Study
In the twelve trials where actors gave incorrect responses, around 75% of the real participants conformed to the incorrect group answer at least once. One-quarter of the participants never conformed.
Asch’s study illustrated conformity and alluded to the reasons people conform. However, it is limited by the sample because it lacked representation of females and older individuals. Further, the superficial nature of the vision test did not test a deep-seated belief or behavior.
Three Reasons People Conform
Through studies, like those carried out by Sherif, Asch, and Zimbardo, psychologists and sociologists identified three reasons why people conform. It’s crucial to understand that these reasons overlap because they are all social constructs, but they each possess unique elements.
Pressure from the Group to Conform
Normative social influence encourages people to conform to the expectations of others. Individuals yield to group pressure to fit in with the majority to gain acceptance, avoid disapproval, or accomplish personal goals. There is usually a strong element of rejection involved in the decision to conform.
This type of social influence often involves compliance and a fundamental desire to belong. The combination of making a good impression and avoiding embarrassment is a powerful motivation. Normative influence is strongest when an individual is in a group they care about, like family and friends.
Fashion is a prime example of normative social influence. There are hundreds of perceived social norms related to fashion, like wearing black at a funeral and not wearing white to a wedding. Humans tend to embrace current style trends to avoid ridicule and ostracism.
The Pressure to Be Correct
Informational social influence relies on knowledge and correctness. Internalization is generally associated with informational influence because the individual chooses to accept and embrace the group view.
When an individual’s beliefs are challenged and proven incorrect, it motivates them to change. The individual feels they lack appropriate knowledge and defers to information received from the group. Note that this can occur with a majority or minority influence because it is tied to the correctness of data.
Another scenario that drives people to submit to informational influence is an ambiguous situation. When an individual doesn’t know how to behave, they may defer to the majority.
Finally, when people find themselves in the midst of a crisis, they will likely defer to informational influence. For example, if a person heading into a mall sees several people fleeing the building, they are likely to run away rather than enter.
Conforming in Some Situations but Not Others
Social impact theory explains why people conform in some situations but not others. The theory identifies three key factors that determine whether or not a person will conform.
- Group size affects the desire to conform. The larger the group, the greater the pressure to conform.
- Power or strength impact conformity. Individuals with more power exercise more influence than those with less power.
- Immediacy, or the distance between the influencer and the subjects, is the final determining factor. In this situation, immediacy is either physical or psychological proximity.
Variations of these three elements will deliver different results. Groups with large numbers, possessing a lot of power, and close proximity exert the most influence over an individual. Small groups with little power and great distance from the individual will hold the least influence.
Social impact theory fills the gap between normative influence and informational influence.
Further research on social impact theory led to the development of dynamic social impact theory. This theory addresses the reciprocal relationship between individuals and groups. It predicts group clusters within a larger group.
Is Conformity Good or Bad?
Conformity is deeply ingrained in every society. It is natural to ask whether it’s a positive or negative social construct. In truth, conformity can be both good and bad.
For the most part, humans benefit from conformity because it supports several societal constructs. Conformity establishes social rules and establishes clear-cut identifiers for groups. It also helps people adapt to unfamiliar situations. Emulating the behaviors of a group allows people to avoid embarrassment.
Conformity also leads to enjoyment and social connections. Fads, like fashion and dances, spread through conformity. Who didn’t enjoy the mannequin challenge? Individuals and teams created entertaining and innovative ways to participate in the global phenomenon.
The downside is that conformity is a double-edged sword. It can create unhealthy dynamics and even support harmful behaviors. A perfect example is tobacco use, specifically smoking cigarettes.
Following World War II, smoking cigarettes became a social norm. Advertisers marketed cigarettes to men and women as being “cool” and “attractive.” The tobacco industry gained immense power and wealth. Cigarettes even gained celebrity endorsements and luxury product lines.
Despite emerging reports that linked smoking to lung cancer, cigarettes remained popular for decades due to normative influence and social impact theory.
Today, the social constructs that made smoking popular work to do the opposite. Laws exist to prohibit smoking in public places, and non-smokers often ostracize smokers. Of course, the modern campaign also uses informational influence like case studies and death rates.
What Happens When People Don’t Conform?
Social nonconformity is the failure or refusal to accept or align with one or more group norms. It’s the person who wears red to a funeral or the employee who speaks an opposing viewpoint at the company meeting. Nonconformists refuse to embrace a norm or choose to turn against the group.
Discussing conformity without addressing the opposite effect is pointless and incomplete. If conformity leads to harmony among the masses, nonconformity does the opposite.
Still, we’ve seen the positive effects of nonconformity in the example of tobacco use. Non-smokers, a minority, spoke up until they converted enough members to overtake the majority.
Obviously, nonconformity is a difficult path to walk. Standing your ground with an unpopular opinion often leads to isolation and ostracism. In truth, it is terrifying to speak against the majority and risk status with the majority. Nonconformity is also thrilling and feels powerful.
The Case for Nonconformity
Though not always the case, nonconformity is beneficial in two massive ways. First, it’s generally the catalyst for change and innovation. Second, nonconformity can address injustice.
Nonconformists Cause Change
Conformity is the breeding ground for sameness and slows development, but it holds the fabric of society together. Nonconformity drives most innovation and progress by challenging the status quo. Nonconformists tend to live on the fringes of society because they cling to their beliefs and challenge existing ideas.
Some of the greatest minds of all time were nonconformists who devoted their lives to their ideas, beliefs, and principles. Albert Einstein, Nikolai Tesla, Noam Chomsky, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, and Oscar Wilde revolutionized their respective industries by challenging norms.
Nonconformists don’t just refuse to embrace group norms; they often work in direct opposition. However, we can thank nonconformists for many modern comforts and some of the most beautiful art ever made.
Nonconformists Fight Injustice
An individual or minority will speak out when they find the majority’s beliefs or actions unjust. Some of the most significant social changes in history stemmed from this desire to reject unjust group norms. Nonconformity as a tool for social change and correcting injustice is not a new concept.
During the Nazi occupation of Europe, nonconformists worked to hide and move people to safety. They recognized the injustice and circumvented it whenever possible, despite the threat of death. Despite the strictness of Hitler’s regime, several nonconformists worked against the Nazis and even reported information that led to their defeat.
Common Characteristics of Nonconformists
Aside from possessing unique views of the world, nonconformists tend to share some other similarities. Note that not all nonconformists possess these traits.
- Nonconformists tend to have strong emotional intelligence with excellent self-awareness.
- Self-confidence is a strength for nonconformists though they may not project it to the world.
- Nonconformists appreciate fluidity and thinking outside of the box.
- Nonconformists tend to exhibit awkward social skills, poor understanding of social skills, or complete disregard for social cues.
Real-World Examples of Conformity and Nonconformity
Perhaps it’s easiest to demonstrate conformity by providing examples of ways you conform every day. Think about a simple social greeting. Do you say “hello,” shake hands, or share a quick embrace? How do you know which to expect under which circumstances? What greeting would a non-conformist choose?
Keep in mind that many of these norms are often unspoken and unwritten. They vary from culture to culture and may even differ between regions in the same country.
Social Events and Conformity
Conformity also dictates norms for social gatherings, like parties. From what silverware to use for a specific dish to whether or not a host gift is required, norms exist for most social engagements.
To illustrate the difference between conformity and nonconformity in social interactions, consider baby showers. Traditionally, only women attend baby showers and participated in “baby games.” Some modern couples choose the nonconformist route and invite both genders to participate in the festivities.
How Conformity Affects Our Eating Habits
Fad diets exemplify conformity at work in society. Atkins, Keto, and Weight Watchers all promise to help you get healthy by making small changes to your diet. Each approach is different, and they all happily provide scientific information to support their menus.
In recent years, vegetarianism and veganism gained popularity as opportunities to eat better, lose weight, and help society. The argument is that raising animals for food releases excessive waste and adversely affects the environment. Like the other diets, proponents of animal-free diets provide information to support their claims.
Conformity Affects Family Matters
From marriage to child-rearing, conformity affects how and when you start a family. Though these norms are more fluid than ever, large groups still cling to traditional roles, which caused massive upheaval and disagreement in many countries around the world.
Avoiding hot topics, let’s examine the evolution of the average age of marriage. In 1950, the average age for marriage was 22 for men and 20 for women. Sixty years later, the social norm changed by several years, with an average age of 28 for men and 26 for women.
This age increase is likely attributed to the change in social norms. In the 1950s, men and women received immense social pressure to start a family and live up to the “Leave it to Beaver” lifestyle. By 2010, social pressure shifted to encourage college education before settling down.
Conformity in the Classroom
Have you ever walked into a preschool room during activity time? Think about how different the preschool environment looks compared to a middle school math class or a high school literature class. Schools epitomize the best and worst of conformity.
As kids mature, they learn to sit in seats, pay attention to the teacher, and complete schoolwork. Education is certainly a critical aspect of development, and schools teach more than academic skills. Kids develop their social skills through daily interactions. They even establish their own hierarchies.
However, there are two significant issues with conformity in schools. First, peer pressure is often detrimental, especially to teenagers in the struggle to fit in. Students may not make the best choices and often pressure others into joining them on dangerous paths. Further, kids may make unhealthy choices to fit in.
The second issue is the lack of nonconformity. Testing and assessments are a significant part of the current education system. Consequently, kids learn how to pass standardized tests and, in doing so, lose their chance to question things. Their critical thinking and creativity skills are not developed as much as they were in prior generations.
Remember, nonconformity brings about change through innovation and the pursuit of justice. If the younger generations are not taught to exercise those rights and ask those questions, how will that affect the future?
In the Pursuit of Conformity
Though the world at large often punishes nonconformity, its existence is necessary to enact progress and initiate social change. Often, nonconformist ideas evolve into the new norm. This trend is evident throughout human history, including the example of smoking cigarettes.
People conform because it’s in our nature to do so, but conformity takes many forms. So, will you be wearing a purple shirt and sneakers to work tomorrow?