Page 44 - The Social Animal

26 The Social Animal

to group pressure during the performance of a simple perceptual task.
The results showed that, for the individuals who valued their mem-
bership in the group, those who were led to feel only moderately ac-
cepted were more likely to conform to the norms and standards set
by the group than were those who were led to feel totally accepted.
In other words, it’s easier for an individual who is securely ensconced
in a group to deviate from that group.
There are also some important cultural differences in the ten-
dency to go against the group. One of these cultural differences is
nicely illustrated by the following pieces of folk wisdom: In America,
“the squeaky wheel gets the grease”; in Japan, “the nail that stands out
gets pounded down.” This general impression was confirmed by Rod
Bond and Peter Smith. In an analysis of some 133 experiments using
the Asch procedure in 17 different countries, they found that con-
formity is more prevalent in collectivist societies (like Japan, Norway,
and China) than in individualistic societies (like the United States
19
and France). There also seems to be a small but consistent gender
20
difference, with women conforming more than men. It should be
noted, however, that this gender difference is greatest when the re-
searcher was male or when the group task was male-oriented. 21

The Group Exerting Pressure The other side of that issue, of
course, has to do with the makeup of the group exerting the pressure.
A group is more effective at inducing conformity if (1) it consists of
experts, (2) the members are of high social status (for example, the
popular kids in a high school), or (3) the members are comparable
with the individual in some way. Thus, to go back to Sam, our hypo-
thetical college student, I would speculate that it is more likely that
Sam would conform to the pressure exerted by his acquaintances if
he thought they were experts in politics and in making judgments
about human relations. Similarly, he would be more likely to yield to
those people if they had a lot of status or were important potential
friends than if they were of no consequence to him. And finally, their
being fellow students gives the judgments of Sam’s acquaintances
more impact on his behavior than, say, the judgment of a group of
10-year-old children, a group of construction workers, or a group of
Portuguese biochemists.
Conformity works much the same way when the source of influ-
ence is an individual rather than a group. Thus, we are more likely to