Page 55 - The Social Animal

Conformity 37

the marijuana; if the admired classmates said they would refuse the
marijuana, so did the participants. Unlike the conformity in the Asch
experiment, which was merely compliance, the influence here was
durable; it was evident even later when participants were asked to
give their opinions about marijuana in private.

Internalization The internalization of a value or belief is the
most permanent, most deeply rooted response to social influence.
The motivation to internalize a particular belief is the desire to be
right. Thus, the reward for the belief is intrinsic. If the person who
provides the influence is perceived to be trustworthy and to have
good judgment, we accept the belief he or she advocates and we in-
tegrate it into our system of values. Once it is part of our own sys-
tem, it becomes independent of its source and will become extremely
resistant to change.
Let us discuss some of the important distinguishing characteris-
tics of these three responses to social influence. Compliance is the
least enduring and has the least effect on the individual because peo-
ple comply merely to gain reward or to avoid punishment. The com-
plier understands the force of the circumstance and can easily change
his or her behavior when the circumstance no longer prevails. At
gunpoint, I could be made to say almost anything; but with the threat
of death removed, I could quickly shrug off those statements and
their implications. If a child is kind and generous to his younger
brother to obtain a cookie from his mother, he will not necessarily
become a generous person. He has not learned that generosity is a
good thing in itself; what he has learned is that generosity is a good
way to get cookies. When the cookie supply is exhausted, his gener-
ous behavior will eventually cease unless that behavior is bolstered by
some other reward (or punishment). Rewards and punishments are
important means of inducing people to learn and perform specific
activities but they are very limited techniques of social influence be-
cause they must be ever present to be effective—unless the individ-
ual discovers some additional reason for continuing the behavior.
This last point will be discussed shortly.
Continuous reward or punishment is not necessary for the re-
sponse to social influence that I call identification. The person with
whom the individual identifies need not be present at all; all that is
needed is the individual’s desire to be like that person. For example,