Conformity, Obedience and Deviance (AAMC 7B)
Content category 7B is about how other people change what we do. The attitudes and social behavior page defines the group effects (social facilitation, loafing, groupthink, the bystander effect). This page goes deeper on the classic experiments behind conformity and obedience, the research ethics questions they raised, and the sociological side of 7B: norms, sanctions, deviance and collective behavior. Passages in this area often describe a study and ask which variable changed the outcome.
Conformity
Conformity is changing one's behavior or beliefs to match a group, without a direct request to do so. The two motives are normative influence (wanting to be accepted and avoid rejection) and informational influence (believing the group knows better, especially when the situation is ambiguous).
Participants judged which of three comparison lines matched a standard line, a task with an obvious answer. All other group members were confederates who sometimes gave the same clearly wrong answer. About three quarters of participants conformed at least once, and conformity occurred on roughly one third of critical trials overall. In a control condition answering alone, errors were under 1%.
Because the correct answer was obvious, conformity here reflects mainly normative influence. Private written responses reduced conformity sharply, which supports that interpretation.
| Increases conformity | Decreases conformity |
|---|---|
| Group of about 3 to 5 people (larger groups add little) | A single dissenter or ally, even one who gives a different wrong answer |
| Unanimous majority | Responding privately or anonymously |
| Ambiguous or difficult task (more informational influence) | High confidence or expertise on the task |
| Group is attractive, high status, or valued | Prior public commitment to one's own answer |
| Collectivist cultural context (on average) | Individualist cultural context (on average) |
Distinguish conformity from compliance (changing behavior in response to a direct request, with techniques such as foot-in-the-door) and obedience (following an order from an authority). Also distinguish public compliance (going along outwardly) from private acceptance or internalization (actually changing one's belief). Informational influence tends to produce private acceptance; normative influence often produces only public compliance.
Obedience to Authority
In Milgram's studies, participants in the role of teacher were told to deliver increasing shocks (labeled 15 to 450 volts) to a learner, a confederate who received no real shocks, for each wrong answer. In the baseline condition, about 65% of participants continued to the maximum, despite hearing protests, even though most showed visible distress.
| Change to the procedure | Effect on full obedience |
|---|---|
| Learner in the same room as the teacher | Decreased |
| Teacher had to place the learner's hand on the shock plate | Decreased further |
| Experimenter gave orders by telephone | Decreased sharply |
| Two other teachers (confederates) refused to continue | Decreased sharply (a dissenter effect, as in Asch) |
| Study moved from a prestigious university to a rundown office | Decreased somewhat, but remained substantial |
| Another person delivered the shocks while the participant did a secondary task | Increased (diffusion of responsibility) |
These results point to situational forces: proximity of the authority, distance from the victim, legitimacy of the institution and the presence of models who resist. Milgram proposed an agentic state, in which people see themselves as instruments carrying out another person's wishes and therefore not responsible.
College men were randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners in a mock prison; the study was stopped after six days as some guards became abusive. It is often cited as evidence that roles and situations shape behavior powerfully.
Critics point out that guards were given guidance about how to behave, the lead researcher acted as prison superintendent (a participant observer, which can bias results), only some guards became abusive, and participants who answered an advertisement for a prison study may have differed from the general population. It is best treated as a dramatic demonstration, not strong causal evidence.
Research ethics
These studies helped produce modern ethics rules, enforced by an Institutional Review Board (IRB):
- Informed consent
- Participants are told what the study involves and its risks before agreeing.
- Right to withdraw
- Participants may stop at any time without penalty. Milgram's verbal prods (the experiment requires that you continue) would conflict with this today.
- Deception
- Allowed only when necessary, when risks are minimal, and when no non-deceptive method would work.
- Debriefing
- After the study, participants are told its true purpose and any deception is explained.
- Confidentiality
- Data are protected and reported without identifying participants.
The Belmont Report organizes these rules around three principles: respect for persons, beneficence and justice (fair distribution of the burdens and benefits of research).
Norms and Sanctions
Norms are shared expectations about how people should behave in a given situation. They are learned through socialization (see identity and self) and maintained by sanctions.
| Positive (rewards conformity) | Negative (punishes violation) | |
|---|---|---|
| Formal (official, written) | A diploma, a promotion, an award | A fine, a prison sentence, expulsion |
| Informal (unwritten, everyday) | A smile, praise, an invitation | A frown, gossip, being ignored |
Norms vary in strength. Folkways are everyday customs whose violation draws mild disapproval. Mores carry moral weight, and violating them draws strong disapproval. Taboos are so strongly prohibited that violation provokes disgust. Laws are formal norms enforced by the state. When norms break down or become unclear, Durkheim described the result as anomie, a state associated with higher rates of deviance and suicide.
Deviance
Deviance is any violation of norms, from rudeness to crime. It is relative: the same act can be deviant in one setting and normal in another. Sociologists also note that deviance can be functional for society: punishing it clarifies norms and unites the group, and some deviance drives social change.
| Theory | Core idea | Classic example |
|---|---|---|
| Differential association (Sutherland) | Deviance is learned through interaction with close others who define it favorably; the balance of pro- and anti-deviant messages matters | A teen whose friends shoplift learns both the techniques and the justifications |
| Labeling theory | Deviance depends on whether others label an act and person as deviant. Primary deviance is the initial act with little consequence for identity; secondary deviance follows when a person accepts the deviant label and acts on it | A student labeled a troublemaker begins to see himself that way |
| Strain theory (Merton) | Deviance results when society stresses goals (wealth) but blocks legitimate means to reach them | Someone without access to good jobs turns to theft |
| Social control theory (Hirschi) | People conform because of bonds to society: attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. Weak bonds permit deviance | A teenager with few ties to school or family is more likely to break rules |
| Conflict perspective | Powerful groups define what counts as deviance and enforce laws unequally | Similar drug offenses punished differently across social classes |
- Conformity: accepts the goals and the legitimate means.
- Innovation: accepts the goals, rejects the means (fraud, theft).
- Ritualism: rejects or gives up on the goals, keeps following the rules (a bureaucrat going through the motions).
- Retreatism: rejects both goals and means (withdrawal, some forms of addiction).
- Rebellion: rejects both and substitutes new goals and means (revolutionaries).
Stigma, described by Erving Goffman, is an attribute that discredits a person and reduces them in others' eyes to a tainted identity. Stigma attached to mental illness, HIV or addiction can discourage people from seeking care, which links this topic to health outcomes.
After serving a sentence for a minor offense, a young woman finds employers reject her because of her record. She eventually takes work through a friend involved in selling stolen goods and begins describing herself as someone who has nothing to lose.
Several theories fit pieces of this, so look for the most specific match. The reaction of employers and her adopting a deviant self-concept after being officially labeled is the core of labeling theory (secondary deviance). Learning through a friend points to differential association, and blocked legitimate means points to strain, but the self-concept shift after official labeling is the defining element.
Collective Behavior
Collective behavior is relatively spontaneous, short-lived behavior by a large number of people that departs from usual norms.
- Fads
- Brief, intense enthusiasms for an object or activity.
- Mass hysteria
- Shared, unfounded anxiety or symptoms spreading through a group, often with no physical cause.
- Riots
- Collective violence, often triggered by a specific event against a background of grievance.
- Panic
- Irrational, self-destructive group reaction to perceived threat, such as a crush at an exit.
| Theory | Claim |
|---|---|
| Contagion theory | Crowds exert a hypnotic influence; anonymity leads people to abandon personal responsibility (related to deindividuation) |
| Convergence theory | Crowd behavior reflects the people who come together; like-minded people converge |
| Emergent norm theory | Crowds develop new norms on the spot to define an unusual situation, often led by a few early actors |
Collective behavior differs from social movements, which are organized, longer-lasting efforts to promote or resist change (see demographics and social change).
Culture as a Social Influence
Culture shapes behavior by defining what is normal. People new to a culture often experience culture shock. Groups adapt to each other through assimilation (a minority group adopts the dominant culture and loses distinctive traits), amalgamation (groups blend to form a new culture), multiculturalism (groups coexist while keeping distinct identities) and subcultures (groups that share most of the dominant culture but have distinctive norms). A counterculture explicitly opposes the dominant culture's norms.
Worked MCQs
5 MCQs in the style of the Psych/Soc section, several built around a study design.
Q1. In a replication of Asch's study, one confederate is instructed to give the correct answer on every trial while the rest give the same wrong answer. Compared with the unanimous condition, participants' conformity will most likely:
Breaking the unanimity of the majority is one of the most powerful ways to reduce conformity. Even one ally, or a dissenter who gives a different wrong answer, sharply lowers conformity.
Q2. Which change to Milgram's procedure would most likely increase the proportion of fully obedient participants?
When the participant was not the one delivering the shock, obedience increased, consistent with diffusion of responsibility. Remote authority, disobedient peers, and closeness to the victim all reduced obedience.
Q3. A teenager who regularly spends time with older cousins who sell stolen phones learns both how to resell phones and the belief that such theft harms no one. Which theory best explains this?
Differential association theory proposes that deviance is learned through close interaction with people who define it favorably, including both techniques and justifications.
Q4. A researcher plans a study in which participants are misled about the purpose of a task. Which practice is required after participation?
When deception is used, participants must be debriefed afterward, which means told the study's true purpose and why deception was necessary. Informed consent is obtained before participation, not repeated before analysis.
Q5. An employee no longer believes she will ever be promoted but continues to follow every company procedure exactly. In Merton's strain theory, this is:
Ritualism means abandoning the cultural goal (promotion, success) while continuing to follow the institutional means (rules and procedures). Innovation keeps the goal and rejects the means, retreatism rejects both, and rebellion replaces both with new ones.
Quick Recap
- Conformity: normative (be liked) vs informational (be right). Asch: about one third of critical trials; one ally cuts conformity sharply.
- Conformity (no request), compliance (peer request), obedience (authority's order).
- Milgram: about 65% fully obedient at baseline; obedience falls with closeness to the victim, remote authority, or defiant peers.
- Stanford prison study: vivid but methodologically weak.
- IRB ethics: informed consent, right to withdraw, minimal deception, debriefing, confidentiality.
- Sanctions are formal or informal, positive or negative. Folkways, mores, taboos, laws. Anomie when norms break down.
- Deviance theories: differential association, labeling (primary vs secondary), strain (Merton's five modes), social control, conflict.
- Collective behavior (fads, mass hysteria, riots) explained by contagion, convergence or emergent norm theory.