Key idea: Conformity shapes what groups do. Brain scans ask whether it also changes what people see.
Why people conform
1
Normative influence
Going along to be liked and accepted by the group.
2
Informational influence
Going along because the group seems to know better.
3
Pluralistic ignorance
Everyone privately disagrees but thinks the others agree.
Normative influence · Informational influence · Pluralistic ignorance
Berns and colleagues (2005) asked people to judge whether 3D shapes matched, alongside a group of four actors who sometimes gave the wrong answer. People went along with the group on about 41% of those trials.
What HL adds: The culture extension: conformity is higher in more collectivist countries (Bond and Smith, 1996, see 3.3.4), so the same group pressure has different effects.
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Key idea: Lab, brain and field studies agree that conformity is strong; each method has limits.
Strengths
- Brain imaging adds a biological level
- Field data from real students
- Consistent across methods
Limitations
- 32 people, artificial task
- Brain activity is open to interpretation
- Self-report in the field
Resisting the group was linked to emotion, which suggests why conformity is hard to resist.
Watch out: Activity is not proof. Say what else the brain data could mean.