PSYC 215: Conformity

The two reasons people conform

1. Informational influence 2. Normative Influence

Conclusions from these studies

1. It is much more difficult for someone to stand alone against the group than even a tiny minority. 2. Any dissent, whether it validates the individuals opinion or not can break the spell cast my a unanimous majority and reduce normative pressures to conform.

The 3 main factors Milgram identified as important to increase baseline obedience?

1. authority figure 2. proximity of the victim 3. experimental procedure

What determines if a culture is individualistic or collectivist? (three key factors)

1. complexity of a society. More complex and industrialized societies, means more variety of groups to identify with and greater focus on personal over collective goals. 2. affluence of a society. As people prosper, the gain financial independence, this results in social independence and mobility, and a focus on personal goals. 3. Heterogeneity. Societies that are homogenous (same language, religion and social customs) tend to be more rigid and intolerant of those who veer from the norm. Culturally diverse societies tend to be more permissive of dissent, thus allowing more individual expression. Also links between Christianity and individualism

three forms of influence

1. conformity 2. compliance 3. obedience These are not distinct, qualitatively different forms of influence . In all three cases the influence can emanate from a person, a group, or an institution. All can result in constructive, destructive or neutral behaviour.

Conformity effects on perception (Study by Berns in 2005)

32 adults into a visual-spatial perception experiment in which they were asked to mentally rotate two geometric objects to determine if they are the same of different. As in the Asch study, participants accompanied by 4 confederates who unanimously made the wrong decision, however this study placed participants in fMRI during the task. Results showed participants conformed to 41% of the groups incorrect judgments. Second the conforming judgements accompanied by heightened activity in the brain that controls spatial awareness, not the area associated with conscious decision making. Suggest that the group altered perceptions not just behaviour. Proves that both informative and normative influence are often at play at the same time

Public conformity

Also called compliance (we also use this term later to describe a different form of influence) is a more superficial change in behaviour. People often respond to normative influence by pretending to agree when they privately do not.

Another problem that arises if group size is too large

Another problem is if we add too many people, individuals may suspect acting in collusion. What matters is not the actual number of others in a group but one's perception of how many distinct others who are thinking independently. Ex. found people are more influenced by two groups of two than by one group of four. Conformity increased even more when exposed to three 2 person groups over two three person groups and least with one 6 person group.

Gender differences in conformity

Asch originally believed women were more likely to conform than men as they were seen as weaker. Now we have found females conform more on typically masculine tasks and males conform more on feminine tasks. Conform the same on gender neutral tasks. This suggests it is ones familiarity with the task that affects conformity, not gender.

Automatic imitation in animals

Automatic imitation has been observed in various animal species such as pigeons, monkeys and fish. Evidence that "cultures" are transmitted through imitation in whales. Humpback whales in Maine use lobtail feeding technique where they form clouds of bubbles that envelop schools of fish. First observed in 1980 and by 1989, 50% of whale populations in the area used the technique. Recently, researchers found that 87% of whales that used this technique learned it from exposure to other humpbacks. Again this is an automatic imitation that is done without thought or effort.

The Victim

Because the person being tortured in the Milgram experiment was physically separated, participants could distance themselves emotionally from consequences of their actions. When seated in the same room as the person being shocked, only 40% obedience. When had to physical grab the persons hand and place it on shock plate, obedience dropped to 30% (still 3 out of ten willing to use brute force). Milgram also did an unpublished bring a friend condition. Person told to bring a friend and they drew straws who was teacher and who was learner. They then coached the learner to act like the confederate and call out the teachers name. Obedience rate in friend condition was only 15%. They resisted when prior relationship existed with victim.

Single process theory of conformity

Believe that majority and minority influence use the same processes to exert social influence

Photocopier experiment

Change between condition 1 and 3 was triggered by simply adding the word because. Mind is on autopilot and we respond mindlessly to words without fully processing the information. People have also found adding the words "but you are free to accept or refuse this request" can also help a lot" in convincing someone to do something. This evokes feelings of freedom.

Compliance

Changes in behaviour that are elicited by direct requests ex. when friend says can you do me a favour or sales pitches. Police getting people who committed a crime to confess, political parties getting people to vote for them. Convincing someone to do something.

sequential request strategies

Compliance techniques based on making two or more requests. First step is setting trap and second set is is springing it. ex. foot in the door technique, lowballing, the door in the face technique, thats not all technique. All of them based on two step process that involves a shift in request from one size to another. What differs is which request comes first and the transition between steps.

Do people believe themselves to be conformists?

Despite conformity being widespread, people coaxed into following a group norm will often not admit to being influenced. They will often try to reinterpret or rationalize the behaviour in order to see themselves as independent. People also perceive others to be more conforming than themselves. This is due to us judging others by overt behaviour and analyzing ourselves more introspectively.

What does Social Impact Theory allow us to do?

Do not enable us to explain the processes that give rise to social impact or answer questions involving why. Does allow us to predict when social influence will occur. Works for compliance, conformity and obedience.

idiosyncrasy Credits

Edwin Hollander (1958) recommends a different approach to minority influence. People who seek position of leadership or to challenge a group must first be accepted into the group as full fledged members. People must first conform to establish their credentials as a competent insider. By becoming a member of the mainstream they accumulate idiosyncrasy credits or "brownie points", after they have accumulated enough, more deviance will be tolerated by the group. First conform and then dissent strategy.

Vernon Allen and John Levine (1969) study

First experiment: Led participants to believe they were working together with 4 confederates and 3 out of 4 consistently agreed with the wrong judgement. Fourth either agreed with majority, agreed with participant or made third incorrect judgment. Even when confederate made a third independent judgment, we see conformity was reduced. Second Experiment: varied the competence of the ally. Some participants received support from average person and the other half received support from someone with thick glasses who couldn't see the visual task very well. However, the presence of both reduced conformity.

What happened in the Asch study when a confederate was added who agreed with the participant?

Found to reduce conformity by 80%. Does not tell us why this was so effective at reducing conformity. Was it because they agreed with the participant or disagreed with the majority?

Positive motivating effects of social rejection

Once we are rejected we have a higher motivation to re-affiliate with others results in increased sensitivity to social perception cues that signal opportunities for inclusion. Study found people that faced rejection were more accurate in ability to distinguish "true smiles" from "fake smiles".

Results of Migram experiment

He asked people to predict the outcomes of this study, people guessed people would stop at 134 V. People didn't think a single person would go to the maximum 450 V. In the study that tested 40 people, participants exhibited an alarming degree of obedience, on average they administered 27 out of a total 30 possible shocks. 60% (26 out of 40) went all the way to the max 450V punishment. He did find almost all participants were tormented by the experience, many pleaded with experimenter to let them stop but when he said no they continued. He repeated experiment with women and found the same results.

Jones Town

In 1978, 900 members of the People's temple cult obeyed the comment by their leader Reverend James Jones to kill themselves by drinking poison. Another example is Heaven's Gate Cult in California when Marshall Applewhite convince 37 of his followers to commit suicide with him in 1997.

Sherif vs Asch study

In sherif study, participants in the dark so naturally turned to others for guidance. When physical reality is ambiguous as in optical illusion presented, opinions of others can serve as valuable source of information. Asch participants in much more awkward position, they repeated an incorrect answer just to conform. They said later they knew the group was wrong but still went along with it as they felt crazy.

chameleon effect

Likewise, we mimic people we are speaking with without noticing it such as nodding head or crossing legs. Natural (unconscious) tendency to imitate other peoples speech, inflections & physical movements

Moscovici's Theory of Minority Influence

Majorites get power from numbers, while nonconformists get power by the style of their behaviour. Minority must be forceful, persistence, and unwavering to exert influence. At the same time they must also appear flexible and open-minded. First unwavering repetition draws attention from those in the mainstream, furthermore signals that the dissenter is unlikely to yield and majority feels pressure to compromise. If someone appears confident and dedicated enough to go against majority, people think they must have a good point. Dissenters shown to have more influence when people identify with them and perceive them to be similar (seen as "us" rather then "them"). Strong evidence for the consistency hypothesis.

Objective vs subjective social influence

Majorities have more influence if the information is objective (a fact with only one right answer). Minorities exert equal impact on opinion based questions or subjective questions. People feel more conformable straying from mainstream on matters of opinion.

Effects of how and when conformity is measured

Majorities have upper hand on direct or public measures of conformity. Indirect or more private measures of conformity, on attitude issue related but not focal to the point of conflict or after the passage of time results in minority influence a stronger impact.

Stanley Milgram and explain the shock experiment

Milgram performed 18 experiments on obedience published between 1963 and 1974. One of the most famous psychological research experiments ever conducted. Experiment: person arrives at Yale university laboratory and meets two men: one is experimenter, young man dressed in grey lab coat and the other is middle aged man named Mr. Wallace, overweight and average looking accountant. You are told Mr. Wallace is another participant and they are studying punishment and learning. You are told you will be the teacher and Mr. Wallace is the learner. You find out that your job is to test the learner's memory and administer electric shocks of increasing intensity whenever he makes a mistake. Experimenter tells a scared Mr. Wallace as electrodes are attached that the shocks will be painful but will not cause permanent damage. Experimenter than stings you with a shock that is painful and tells you this is an example of a mild shock. You test his memory with questions and if he gets it wrong shock him, when you push it you here a loud buzzing sound in the other room. You are told intensity increases by 15 volts each time. Person makes more and more errors, as you go from 75 to 105 volts start to here grunting. At 120 volts here shouting, at 150 you here screams and he begs experimenter to stop experiment. Screams of agony. At 300 he says he refuses to continue. After 330 the screams stop and you never here from him again. Every time you turn to experimenter for guidance asking if you should continue, he is stern and tells you to continue. Says things such as, "please continue" "the experiment requires you to continue", it is absolutely essential you continue," "you have no choice, you must go on." Of course Mr. Wallace is a confederate

Why do we have the chameleon effect?

Mimicry serves a social function, being in sync with each other in terms of pace, posture and facial expressions enable smooth interactions. Researchers found people mimic more one they are motivated to affiliate (ex. feeling excluded). Mimicry can also be found in non-social situations. Study where participants listened to abstract spleen in happy, sad or neutral voice. Afterwards rated their own mood and it corresponded to the mood in the speech. Known as mood contagion.

is their correlation between the year of a study and the level of obedience produced?

No

When do social norms give rise to conformity?

Only when we know the norms and focus on them. It is common for people to misperceive what is normative, especially if people are too scared or embarrassed to express their true feelings. Ex. surveys found that college students overestimated how comfortable their peers were with binge drinking. Those who overestimated drinking levels at the start of the year showed the most conformity towards these misperceptions. The more normative the consumption of a certain substance is ex. weed, the more likely it is for these students to consume this product. Changing a persons perceptions of norms can change their behaviour. Also often requires attention to be drawn to the norms ex. paring garage covered in litter and see someone litter you are more likely to litter than if you didn't see someone litter.

When do compliance techniques work and when do they not?

Only work when you do not realize you are being manipulated, they must be hidden from view and appear genuine. If technique is perceived as insincere or target has a high level of reciprocity awareness (knows the techniques being used) they will not work. People do not like to feel hustled, results in anger and stubborn non-compliance.

The Door in the face

Opposite of foot in the door, Initial request is high and unreasonable and second request appears got more reasonable. Ex. Tell mom you are pregnant and then say just kidding, I got a tattoo. May be more relieved when contrasted with more negative outcome. Experiment by Cialdini, ask people to do 2 hours a week of volunteering for the next two years. Second request is volunteer 2 hours. With second request only, get 17% agreement, with both get 50% agreement. Involves the technique of perceptual contrast, the second request seems smaller and more reasonable. Another explanation is reciprocal concessions, refers to the pressure to respond to changes in a bargaining position. When individual backs down in bargaining, we view this as a concession which should be matched by our compliance. Offer must come across as sincere.

minority slowness effect

People in western culture assert the belief that those that go against the majority are seen as competent and honest, but they are disliked and roundly rejected. Studies on minority slowness effect asked people about their attitudes on social policies and their opinions on a variety of topics like celebrities, foods, sports etc. Regardless of topic, respondents who held minority opinions were slower to answer the questions than those in the majority.

What happens if to both genders in conformity if they are primed to think of themselves in a romantic situation?

People more likely to behave in gender stereotyped ways when motivated to attract people of the opposite sex. Stereotypical for men to like women who are agreeable and cooperative and women to like independent and dominant men. Women conform more and men conform less when primed to think of themselves in a romantic situation. However when asked who they prefer, both men and women said they are more attracted to non-conformists. This suggests women believe men are attracted to conformists but in reality they are attracted to non-conformists.

The Authority

Physical presence and apparent legitimacy played large role in drawing obedience in Milgram experiment. When experiment was repeated in run down office building as opposed to Yale laboratory, obedience dropped to 48%. When experimenter replaced by confederate who they were told was another participant saw obedience drop to 20%. When he gave orders on phone as opposed to in person, it dropped to 21%. In Miglrams experiment, Destructive obedience requires the physical presence of a prestigious authority figure. If this can be done by experimenter, imagine control by truly powerful leader. In reality an experimenter in a lab coat is not a powerful figure to authority like a member of the military or police officer.

Burger (2009) replicating Migram experiment

Replicated Milgram experiment up to 150V. Since in the original experiment, pretty much everyone who passed 150V went all the way, they used this marker as an indicator of who would go all the way in this new experiment. For ethics, he did not include anyone he felt would experience too much stress from experiment and reminded participants three timesthat they could withdraw from the study at anytime without penalty. The results shows the obedience rate remained the same, Milgrams experiment had 83% passing 150V and this study had 70%. Two additional results proved interesting: (1) Just as Milgram had found, there were no differences between men and women, and (2) the obedience rate declined only slightly, to 63%, among participants who saw a defiant confederate refuse to continue.

Authoritarian Personality

Some people are more susceptible to obedience than others. Personality test known as F-scale (fascist scale) used to identify this type of personality type. People who scored high on the questionnaire are rigid, dogmatic, sexually repressed, ethnocentric, intolerant of dissent and punitive. They are submissive towards figures of authority and aggressive to subordinates.

Strength

Stronger the source = greater the influence. When people view other members of the group as competent, they are more likely to conform. For compliance, source enhance strength by making targets feel obligated to reciprocate small favour. Elicit obedience, authority figures gain strength by wearing uniforms and flaunting their prestigious affiliations.

Control group in experiment

These people who were not prodded to continue by the experimenter stopped early on in the shocking experiment.

Dual processes theory of conformity

believe majorities and minorities exert influence in different ways and for different reasons. Majorities due to power and control, elicit public conformity via stressful normative pressures on individuals. Minorities are viewed as committed to their views produce a deeper and more lasting form of private conformity or conversion by leading others to rethink their earlier positions.

Solomon Asch Experiment (1951)

Took 6 students and experimenter tells them he is interested in ability to make visual discriminations. Asks them to indicate which of three comparison lines is identical in length to a standard line. After each line is shown, each person says there judgement in order of seating position. First two rounds everyone agrees. But on the third task, the other participants select what is clearly the wrong line. Last person thinks they have gone crazy. Caught between need to be right and desire to be liked. All other participants are confederates and make incorrect judgements on 12 out of 18 trials. Participants made incorrect judgement 37% of the time and 50% of participants conformed at least half of the time. Study has been repeated and found the same results with other cognitive tests, even found in children 3-4 years old.

How can we tell between public and private conformity?

both exhibit changes in observable behaviour, but private conformity maintains the change much longer. When Sherif restested participants, estimates reflect the norms previously established by the group even when retested a year later. However, in Asch study if individuals wrote answers privately so others could not see, the conformity dropped dramatically.

Source of exclusion and cultural context (farmer and herder study)

Two groups that share the same geographical space, national identity, language and religion. Farmers show high levels of interdependence within their social network, they rely heavily on friends and neighbours. Herders tend to be individualistic and independent, tend to move between towns and interact with those outside their social circle. Both farmers and herders were more distressed about being excluded by close others than by strangers. However, the herders felt worse about being excluded by strangers than the farmers did about being excluded by strangers. Since herders rely on strangers to make a living, they did not make the same in-group out group distinctions as the farmers. Shows cultural context plays a large role.

Effect of group size on conformity

When Asch varied group size of confederates, he found conformity increased with group size but only up to a certain point. After 3-4 confederates, increasing the number had no effect.

Do cultural orientations influence conformity?

When performing the Asch study among the Bantu of Zimbabwe who scorn deviance, they showed 51% conformity which is higher than found in America. Performed this study among many cultures, found lowest of 18% among Inuit hunters and highest of 60% among Temne farmers in Africa. Conformity rates are generally higher in collectivist cultures.

Number

When the number of sources increases, so does their influence. Asch (1956) increased the number of live confederates in his linejudgment studies from one to four, conformity levels rose, yet further increases had only a negligible additional effect.

Law of diminishing returns

ex. when we add a second lightbulb the impact is dramatic but when we add a tenth lightbulb we barely notice. difference. Another example is how one dollar seems like a lot if you only have three but has no effect of you have a thousand. This is the same thing that happens with adding confederates to the group and conformity

Synchrony of behaviour

for better or for worse, synchrony of behavior—for example, walking in step with others,clapping, singing, chanting, or raising arms in unison—can have a unifying effect on people, increasing the tendency to follow what others are doing. Acting in unison increases the tendency to feel socially connected, cooperate for the common good and comply with requests.

When participants think they are being observed _____ conform more and ______ conform less

Women. Men. As a general role gender differences are weak and unreliable, but exception is in face-to-face encounters where people must disagree openly small differences emerge. When participants think they are being observed women conform more and men conform more. In front of an audience, people worry about how they will come across and feel pressured to behave in ways that are socially acceptable according to traditional gender roles. In public men want to behave with independence and autonomy and women want to come across as gentle.

that's-not-all technique

a sales technique in which the persuader makes an offer and then adds something extra to make the offer look better before the target person can make a decision. Experiment, Condition 1: cupcakes are one dollar (44%) Condition 2: cupcakes are 1.50 but I'll offer you a discount for 1$(73%). Ex. In sales they advertise sales, often not real mark downs but you feel like you got a deal.

Creditors

a word for people who use reciprocity to elicit compliance. People are identified as creditors if they endorse statements such as "if someone does you a favour, it's good to repay the with a greater favour". On the other hand some people try more than others not to accept favours that could set them up to be exploited ex. letting your friend pay for dinner.

Private conformity

also called true acceptance or conversion, is when others cause us to change both our minds and our behaviours. We are truly persuaded that the others in our group are correct

foot-in-the-door technique

asking for a small commitment and, after gaining compliance, asking for a bigger commitment. Break ice with small request customer cannot easily refuse, this increases the chances that.a next larger request later on will be accepted. An explanation of why this works is based on the self-perception theory -> people infer attitudes by observing their own behaviour. When you observe your behaviour in the first step you see yourself as kind person who is cooperative. The second request and you respond in a way to maintain this self image. This would mean foot in the door technique would only work when you attribute the initial act of compliance to your own personal character. This is why if the person is paid for the first request or it is to trivial this will not work

Obedience

behaviour changes produced by commands of authority ex. Nazis following hitler.

The Procedure

four critical elements to experimental procedure that contributed to results. 1. participant told the experimenter was accountable, this relieved their personal responsibility. When lead to believe they are responsible obedience drops considerably. 2. use of gradual escalation in small increments, mirrors foot in the door technique. 3. Participants in novel situation that unimaginable to anything they had experience before. As such, they did not know what the norms were, how others have reacted, or how they were supposed to respond. Variation where participant is shown to other co-participants who refuse to comply, the obedience drops to 10%. 4. task was quickly paced, participants given no time to ponder, consider options or possible consequences.

Motivation as a factor in Sherif and Asch Study

groups of three (2 confederates and 1 participant) asked to look at a picture and then point the person out in a line up. Some cases task was difficult (Like sharif) and only showed original picture very briefly. Second group was shown the picture much longer (task was easy like Asch). Conformity when confederates made the wrong guess depended on level of motivation (participants either told they would get financial reward or told nothing). Conformity rates were about the same when task was difficult and when task was easy. However conformity went up when difficult and financial incentive. Conformity went down when easy and financial incentive. Difficulty of the task is very important, if difficult people turn to others for validation.

World War II and Obedience

many are quick to say that Nazis were bigoted, hateful and pathologically frustrated group of people which resulted in a historical anomaly. People argue germans wanted to participate in the holocaust and were not simply following orders. People believe Nazis believed in and celebrated their mission. Evidence suggests laying blame on German people is too simple of an explanation. Interviews with Nazis who worked in concentration camps as lead them to conclude they are completely ordinary people. Second, crimes of World War Two do not stand alone in history, various crimes of obedience such as torture, suicide bombing and public beheadings are often commitment by ruthless regimes and terrorist organizations all over the world.

pique technique

mindlessness can also have the opposite effect. When we walk by beggars we have the mindless response to ignore them and keep walking. A way to increase compliance is to disrupt the mindless refusal by making an unusual request that piques the target persons interest. study where confederate approaches someone on the street and either asks for a spare quarter or asks them to spare 17 cents. Atypical pleases elicited more comments and questions and 60% increase in those who gave money.

Informational influence

people conform because they want to make good and accurate judgements of reality. People assume that if everyone agrees, that must be the correct answer. ex. Sherifs experiment. Another example is people who were eyewitnesses to a crime will alter recollections and create false memories in response to other eye witnesses. When people are in a state of uncertainty, following the collective wisdom of others is considered an affective strategy. We often rely on collective wisdom ex. look at reviews of products on amazon.

immediacy

refers to the sources proximity in time and space to the target. The closer the source, the greater the impact. ex. Milgram experiment experimenter had less influence when he gave orders over the phone.

Social Impact Theory

social influence of any kind is a function of the influencers strength, immediacy and number. The strength of a source is determined by his or her status, ability, or relationship to a target. Also predicts people resist social pressure, more likely to occur when social impact is divided among many strong and distant targets. There should be less impact on a target who is strong and far from the source than on one who is weak and close to the source, and there should be less impact on a target who is accompanied by other target persons than on one who stands alone. Conformity reduced in the presence of allies and obedience drops when people in the company of rebellious peers.

The Norm of Reciprocity

social norm to treat others as you want to be treated. We feel obligated to repay others for acts of kindness. An example is waiters increase tip percentage by writing thank you on the bill. However people have found this works when cashing in favours immediately but not one week later. People feel the need to reciprocate, however, for small acts this feeling is short lived.

Do humans similarly imitate one another automatically without thought, effort or conflict?

studies in infants show that shortly after birth, babies not only look at faces but also mimic simple gestures ex. sticking tongue out or pursing lips. Imitation develops at different rates for different behaviours.

Muzafer Sherif Study (1936)

study on how norms develop in small groups. Male participants believed they were participating in a visual perception experiment sat in dark room, 15 feet in front of them a small dot of light appeared for 2 secs. Participants asked to guess the distance the dot had moved. Participants perceived light to move but in reality stayed in the same place. This results from an optical illusion called auto kinetic effect where in darkness, stationary point of light appears to move. Next participants brought three days later to do same experiment but with 3 people in the room. Estimates at first varied considerably, but participants later converged on a common perception. Each group established its own norms.

Conformity

tendency of people to change their perceptions, opinions, and behaviours in way that are consistent with group norms. People often find it very difficult to breach social norms.

Mass Psychogenic illness

the occurrence in a group of people of similar physical symptoms with no known physical cause. ex. 6 girls in New York with mysterious motor tics and uncontrollable shaking and twitching.

Low-Balling

the persuader gets you to commit to an action then before you perform it the "cost increases". ex. agree on car price and then after speaking to manager they ask for 500 more and say that is the best they can do. Another example 2 conditions: Students asked to do 7am experiment and 31% agree Second condition asked to do experiment and then told later it is at 7am and 56% agreed. This appears to be based on the psychology of commitment, once someone makes a decision they justify it to themselves by considering all the positives. Furthermore, when someone agrees to something, they then they feel a sense of obligation to the person they negotiated with.

Minority influence

the process by which dissenters (minority) produce change within a group.

Social Influence

the way people are affected by the real and imagined pressures of others.

Transmitter vs executant

transmitter took orders from experimenter and passed them on vs executant who actually pressed shock leaver. higher obedience in transmitter (54%) vs 28% in shocker. Shows that transmitter feels less personal responsibility and more likely to conform. ex. Eichmann, Nazi who took commas from hitler and assed them on, mid level bureaucrat. He felt sick when touring concentration camps, because he spent his time in the war behind a desk.

Meeus and Raaijmakers repeat of Milgram experiment in 21st century

when arrived at lab, met confederate supposedly there to take a test as part of a job interview. If he passed the test he would get the job. As part of a study of performance under stress, the experimenter told participants to distract the test-taking applicant by making an escalating series of harassing remarks. Applicants pleaded the participant to stop, became angry and eventually fell into a state of despair and failed. Question was how many would obey orders through the entire 15 tree remarks despite harm coming to apparent real job application of this person. Control lacked a prodding experimenter. Found 92% obedience in the treatment condition

Normative influence

when people conform because they fear the consequences of rejection that follow deviance. Individuals that stray from group norms tend to be disliked, rejected and ridiculed. Believe or need for belonging is so primitive that rejection can inflict social pain that feels like physical pain. People left out in a three way virtual game called cyber ball exhibited elevated neural activity in brain that lights up during physical pain.