4.3 Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience

Conformity: Going Along with the Group

Conformity is adjusting behavior or thinking to match a group's norms. Asch's line studies showed people often give wrong answers just to match a unanimous group. Conformity increases with group size, unanimity, and public responses, but decreases when even one ally dissents. Normative social influence (wanting approval) and informational social influence (wanting to be correct) both drive conformity.

Compliance: Getting to 'Yes'

Compliance means changing behavior due to a direct request, without necessarily changing beliefs. Key techniques: foot-in-the-door (small request first, then bigger one), door-in-the-face (large request refused, then smaller one accepted), and that's-not-all or low-ball tactics that add incentives or hidden costs after initial agreement.

Obedience: Following Authority

Milgram's obedience experiments showed that ordinary people would deliver seemingly harmful shocks when instructed by an authority figure, with about 65% obeying fully. Obedience rose with legitimate, close authority and institutional setting, and fell when the victim was visible or another person resisted. This revealed the power of situational forces over personal disposition.

Key terms

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to match group norms, as shown in Asch's line studies.

Compliance

Changing behavior in response to a direct request, using tactics like foot-in-the-door or door-in-the-face.

Obedience

Changing behavior in response to a command from an authority figure, studied famously by Milgram.

Normative vs. Informational Social Influence

Normative = conforming to be liked/accepted; Informational = conforming because others seem to have correct knowledge.

Foot-in-the-door technique

Getting agreement to a small request first to increase likelihood of compliance with a larger request later.

Try an AP-style question

About what share of participants conformed at least once?

1. About 75%
2. About 5%
3. About 25%
4. 100%