Types of Conformity
- Conformity occurs when:
- someone changes their usual behaviour to fit in with the behaviour of the group
- someone feels that they will be rejected by the group if they do not align their behaviour with the group's behaviour
- someone may express opinions that align with those of the group even if they do not (secretly) agree with those opinions
- someone may feel a sense of group pressure which leads to them going along with the group (even if such pressure is only in their imagination)
- All of the above examples of conformity are examples of majority influence i.e. the few are influenced by the many
What are the different types of conformity?
Compliance
- Compliance involves someone agreeing with/behaving like the group on the outside/publicly but disagreeing with/having different opinions to the group on the inside/privately, for example:
- Someone may eat only vegetarian food and claim to be vegetarian with a particular group of friends, but they still eat meat when they are not with that group
- Laughing at a joke which someone does not find funny (and may in fact find offensive) because everyone else is laughing
- This is the weakest type of conformity as it only involves surface/superficial change and it ceases when someone is not with the group
Identification
- Someone may temporarily adopt the behaviour of a role model or group if they value the group and wish to be included in it
- Identification may involve someone conforming to the expectation of a social role (e.g. police officers, nurses, teachers)
- Some examples of identification include:
- Someone dressing in the same style as a group of people at college as they admire them and would like to be part of that group
- A teacher believes that detentions are a waste of time but they still issue detentions on a daily basis as this is school policy
- Changes in behaviour driven by identification are usually short-term as the individual is still not completely in agreement with the group (if only in private)
Internalisation
- Internalisation occurs when someone not only accepts and agrees with the group publicly but also privately i.e. they have internalised the group's norms
- This is the strongest type of conformity, leading to long-term change
- Some examples of internalisation include:
- Someone becomes wholly involved in the attitudes, ideals and behavioiurs of an extreme political group, renouncing all of their former beliefs and possibly cutting ties with people from their past
- Someone moves to a new school and changes the way they dress, their hobbies, their attitudes etc. to align with classmates from the new school
Exam Tip
When discussing conformity, it is important to be clear about which type of conformity you are referring to and how it is evident in behaviour. Exam questions on conformity may be in the form of a scenario/stem (AO2): you should read the stem first and then annotate it to indicate which type of conformity is being demonstrated: by doing this you will not forget to link your answer to the stem.