What have social psychologists learned about the factors that make it more or less likely that people will conform?
Research using the Sherif and Asch procedures has indicated that conformity increases under the following conditions:
The situation is ambiguous: When there is no clearly correct behavior, participants feel great pressure to imitate the behavior of others around them.
The group is unanimous: In a variation of the Asch study, when just one accomplice also gave the correct answer, the pressure to conform dropped dramatically. This suggests that the power of the group lies in its unanimity. When we truly believe that "everybody's doing it," it's difficult for us to resist imitating that behavior.
Our response is public and observed by others: In another variation of the Asch study, the participant had to write the answer instead of calling it out in front of the group. Once again, the pressure to conform almost disappeared, suggesting that normative social influence has much more impact on our public behavior than on our private behavior.