Conformity, crowds and culture

Overview

Majority influence and Asch's findings, group size and unanimity, collective and crowd behaviour, deindividuation and anonymity, baiting crowds, and how culture affects social behaviour.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is conformity?

   Model answer

   Conformity is changing your behaviour or beliefs to fit in with a group. The pressure to fit in can be real or only imagined.

2. 2

   What is majority influence?

   Model answer

   Majority influence is when the larger part of a group leads an individual to adopt its views or behaviour. Majority influence often produces public agreement without a genuine change of mind.

3. 3

   How did Asch show the effect of majority influence on conformity?

   Model answer

   Asch asked participants to judge line lengths after a group of confederates had all given the same wrong answer. Roughly a third of answers on these critical trials went along with the wrong majority.

4. 4

   Why do people conform to a majority?

   Model answer

   People conform to be liked and accepted by the group, which is called normative influence. People also conform when they are unsure and think the group knows better, which is informational influence.

5. 5

   How do group size and unanimity affect conformity to a majority?

   Model answer

   Conformity rises as the majority grows, but levels off after about three or four people. A single dissenter who breaks the group's agreement sharply reduces conformity.

6. 6

   What is collective behaviour?

   Model answer

   Collective behaviour is the way people act when they come together as a group, often spontaneously. People in a collective may act quite differently from how they would act alone.

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