Conformity and obedience: the difference between them, the main types and reasons for conformity (normative and informational influence), and explanations of obedience to authority.

What this dot point is asking

OCR wants you to define conformity and obedience and explain the difference between them, describe the reasons people conform (normative and informational influence), and explain why people obey authority.

Conformity versus obedience

The key differences are:

• Source of pressure: conformity comes from a group of equals (peers); obedience comes from an authority higher in status.
• How direct it is: conformity is often indirect (no one tells you to change, you just go along); obedience involves a direct command.
• What you do: conformity is about fitting in; obedience is about following orders.

Why people conform

There are two main reasons for conformity:

• Normative social influence is conforming to fit in and be accepted, to avoid standing out or being rejected. It usually produces public agreement without truly changing private belief, a shallow change called compliance.
• Informational social influence is conforming because we believe the group is right, especially in an unclear or unfamiliar situation, so we look to others for the correct way to behave. This can change private beliefs as well as public behaviour.

Why people obey authority

People obey because the person giving the order is seen as a legitimate authority (a teacher, police officer, boss or someone in uniform) who has the right to be obeyed. Obedience is increased by legitimacy (the authority seems official, for example through a uniform, as the classic core study Bickman (1974) showed), by the proximity and status of the authority, and by the sense that the person obeying is not responsible because they are "just following orders". This last idea (feeling like an agent of the authority rather than acting on one's own will) helps explain why ordinary people can carry out harmful orders.

Evaluating these ideas

These concepts matter because they explain everyday behaviour and serious events (from following fashions to obeying harmful orders). The strength of distinguishing normative and informational influence is that it predicts when people conform (normative when they fear rejection, informational when unsure) and how deep the change is. The strength of the obedience explanation is that legitimacy and reduced responsibility are supported by field studies like Bickman. The weakness is that real situations often involve both conformity and obedience at once, and people differ in how much they are influenced, an individual difference explored in collective and crowd behaviour.

Try this

Q1. State one difference between conformity and obedience. [1 mark]

• Cue. Conformity is indirect group pressure from equals; obedience is a direct order from an authority figure.

Q2. Define normative social influence. [2 marks]

• Cue. Conforming to fit in and be accepted, avoiding rejection, usually changing public behaviour only.

Q3. Give one reason people obey an authority figure. [1 mark]

• Cue. The authority is seen as legitimate (has the right to be obeyed), or the person feels less responsible ("just following orders").