PSYC 3402 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Muzafer Sherif, Solomon Asch, Psych
29 Sep 2016
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Conformity: change in behavior or belief as a result of real or imagined. Social pressure can be more powerful than individual differences. Conformity can be both good and bad. Most of the time yes in western cultures. In japan, conformity is not a sign of weakness, it"s a sign of tolerance, self-control, and maturity (in general: the early classics: Muzafer sherif (1936): participants were asked to participate in an experiment about visual perception; the dot on the screen as if it were moving but it actually wasn"t. A comparison of sherif and asch"s studies suggests different kinds of conformity for different reasons. Sheriff used an ambiguous task, so others provided a source of information and influenced the participants" true opinions. Asch used a task that required simple judgments of a clear stimulus, so most participants exhibited occasional public conformity in response to normative pressure but privately did not accept the group judgments.
