Social Conformity is a type of social influence that alters the belief or behavior of an individual in order to fit into a group. It is also known as majority influence or group pressure. Individuals conform to the majority to be perceived by others as “normal“. The change in behavior can either be due to real group pressure when the physical presence of others is involved or imagined group pressure when the social influence relates to general norms and expectations. Social Conformity is a phenomenon distinct from obedience. Obedience describes the performing of an action due to an authority figure
Tag: Conformity
The Experiments of Social Conformity
In the early 1960s, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram began what would become one of social psychology’s most famed and chilling experiments. Milgram began his work during the widely publicized trial of World War Two Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. His defence, along with other Nazis for sending millions of people to their deaths was that he was simply ‘following the orders of his superiors. He was executed for his crimes against humanity, but the question got Milgram thinking, what might the average person be capable of when under orders? Under what conditions does someone conform to orders, and what