Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to distinguish the three types of conformity, explain the two reasons people conform, and use Asch's research to describe how group size, unanimity and task difficulty affect conformity. The exam skill is to keep the three types and two explanations distinct and to link each of Asch's variables to NSI or ISI.

Types of conformity

The three types of conformity, identified by Kelman, form a depth hierarchy. Compliance is the shallowest: the person changes their public behaviour to match the group but keeps their private view, so the change stops as soon as the group pressure is removed. Identification is intermediate: the person adopts the views and behaviour of a group because they value membership of it, so the change can be both public and private but is tied to being a member of that group. Internalisation is the deepest: the person genuinely accepts the group's view as their own, both publicly and privately, so the change is permanent and persists even away from the group. The contrast that examiners test most often is compliance (public only, temporary) versus internalisation (public and private, permanent).

Explanations for conformity

Normative social influence (NSI) is conforming to be accepted and avoid rejection; it is an emotional process that usually produces compliance. Informational social influence (ISI) is conforming because we believe others are right, especially in ambiguous or novel situations; it is a cognitive process that can lead to internalisation.

The two explanations map onto two basic human needs: the need to be liked and the need to be right. Normative social influence is the desire to be accepted and to avoid rejection or ridicule, so we go along with the group's behaviour, even if we privately disagree; because it is driven by emotion and a wish for approval, it typically produces only compliance and operates most strongly when we are with people we know or want to impress. Informational social influence is the desire to be correct, so in situations that are ambiguous, novel or where there is a right answer we do not know, we look to others as a source of information about how to behave; because it involves genuinely changing what we believe to be true, it is a cognitive process that can lead to internalisation. The two often work together, but separating them lets you explain why some conformity is shallow and temporary while other conformity is deep and lasting.

Asch's research

Asch (1951) asked participants to judge which of three comparison lines matched a standard line, with confederates giving wrong answers on critical trials.

Asch's task was deliberately unambiguous (the correct line was obvious), so any conformity must be due to social pressure rather than genuine doubt. The three variables each reveal something about why people conform. Group size showed conformity rising as the majority grew but levelling off at about three confederates, suggesting it is the presence of a unanimous group, not its exact size, that matters. Unanimity showed that introducing a single dissenting ally, who broke the group's agreement, cut conformity to about a quarter of its previous level, because the participant no longer faced a unanimous majority. Task difficulty showed that making the lines more similar (a harder, more ambiguous task) increased conformity. The first two effects are best explained by normative social influence (a unanimous group creates social pressure), while the task-difficulty effect is best explained by informational social influence (when the task is hard, people look to others to be right).