Psychology for Dummies (48 page)
Read Psychology for Dummies Online
Authors: Adam Cash
Tags: #Psychology, #General, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Spirituality
In a classic episode of the
Twilight Zone,
everyone gets plastic surgery when they reach adolescence, and everyone picks the same transformation so that everyone looks the same, Ken for the men and Barbie for the women. One girl decides to keep her natural look and is subsequently tormented and ridiculed for wanting to do so. She was under enormous pressure to conform, to give into group pressure, and to go along. Groups exert all kinds of pressure on their individual members. Sometimes groups have explicit rules that keep people in line. Other times the rules or pressures are subtle.
Conformity
is defined as a change in behavior that results from real or perceived group pressure. Much to people’s surprise, we conform a lot more than we think. How many purple houses are there on your block? Not many I bet.
In an old study from 1937, Sherif looked at how people would change their judgments based on the answers of other people. Subjects were asked to estimate how far a light moved across a dark room. Sherif found that, when other people were present and offered a different estimate, the subject would change his or her answer to be closer to the others. The other people’s answers influenced the subject. Asch in 1955 found the same thing when he put people in a group and asked them to estimate the lengths of lines. Subjects changed their answers to go along with the group consensus. Both of these experiments are good examples of how an individual will conform under group pressure, even if the pressure is subtle.
Obedience
is an extreme form of conformity, often involving going against one’s better judgment or truest intentions. When I think of obedience, visions of dog-obedience school pop into my head — me standing there with a leash around my neck, jumping up to get my treat for performing the requested trick. Sounds extreme doesn’t it.
Most of us would like to think that we would walk out of an experiment in which we had to torture someone with electric shocks. The majority of subjects in one famous study didn’t stop applying the shock treatment in just such a case (see the “Shocking, no?” sidebar in this chapter). Why? Eight factors have been identified that seem to increase conformity and obedience:
Emotional distance from the victim:
The more personal contact someone has with an individual, the less likely he is to act without compassion. It’s harder to be cruel when the victim has a face.
Proximity and legitimacy of the authority:
When an authority figure is close by, obedience is more likely. The authority also has to be seen as legitimate. We’re more likely to be obedient to an individual that we see as possessing genuine authority, as opposed to a poseur.
Institutional authority:
When an authority figure is part of an accepted institution, obedience is more likely. I’m more likely to comply with the suggestions of a judge than some guy sitting next to me at the bus stop. Recognized institutional authority has a powerful effect on obedience.
Group size:
Groups of three to five people have a maximum effect on conformity pressure, any less or more than this, and the effect is less powerful.
Unanimity:
When groups are in complete agreement, it’s more difficult for a single individual to resist conforming.
Cohesiveness:
The more a group feels that it is bound together and tightly organized, the more power the group has over its members. I used to play softball on a team without uniforms, and it just didn’t feel right. We needed uniforms to be a “real” team. Uniforms are one way to increase cohesiveness because when we look the same we have a sense of unity.
Status:
People with higher status have more influence.
Public response:
People conform more when their behaviors are made public. It’s easier to disagree privately or anonymously.
Although conformity and obedience are not necessarily bad things, learning how to resist both may be important, just in case. Nazi Germany is perhaps one of the most horrific examples of the dangers of conformity. I contend that maintaining a degree of individual diversity is important in any social group. The best way to prevent conformity may be to maintain a sense of and respect for human uniqueness. Freedom of speech and religious tolerance are also good protections against conformity. As long as people feel comfortable being themselves and they can freely speak their minds, conformity is a little more difficult.
Shocking, no?Stanley Milgram, in 1965, conducted an obedience experiment that borders on the extreme. Subjects were seated at a control panel with a switch for delivering electrical shocks to a “subject” on the other side of a partition. The “subjects” were actually experimenters pretending to be participating as real subjects. The premise: The “subject” is to be shocked each time that he or she gets a question wrong. With each subsequent wrong answer, the shock gets stronger and stronger. The shocks start at 75 volts and go up to 450 volts. At some point, the “subject” is yelling and pleading with the real subject to stop administering the shock. An experimenter stands next to the real subject with a clipboard and a white lab-coat insisting that the real subject continue with the experiment and continue to administer shocks, despite the “subject’s” protests and obvious pain.
Actually, the “subjects” did not receive any shock at all; they only pretended to get shocked. Now ask yourself, “When would I have stopped giving the shocks?” Maybe you think that you would have stopped the second the “subject” started yelling and asking you to stop. I’m sure the subjects in Milgram’s study thought the same thing. However, the shocking (sorry about that one) outcome was that 63 percent of the real subjects went all the way to 450 volts in compliance (or obedience) with the experimenter. Now that’s pretty obedient!