Page 57 - The Social Animal

Conformity 39

speed laws are good, that obeying such laws helps to prevent acci-
dents, and that driving at a moderate speed is a sane and reason-
able form of behavior. This is internalization. And with
internalization you would observe more flexibility in the behavior.
For example, under certain conditions—at 6 o’clock on a Sunday
morning, with perfect visibility and no traffic for miles around—
the individual might exceed the speed limit. The compliant indi-
vidual, however, might fear a radar trap, and the identifying
individual might be identifying with a very rigid model; thus, both
would be less responsive to important changes in the environment.
Let us look at the major component in each response to social in-
fluence. In compliance, the important component is power—the power
of the influencer to dole out the reward for compliance and punish-
ment for noncompliance. Parents have the power to praise, give love,
provide cookies, scream, give spankings, withhold allowances, and so
on; teachers have the power to paste gold stars on our foreheads or
flunk us out of college; and employers have the power to praise, pro-
mote, humiliate, or discharge us. The U.S. government has the power
to increase economic aid to or withhold it from a dependent nation.
Thus, the government can use this technique to persuade a country in
Latin America or the Middle East to hold a democratic election. Re-
wards and punishments are effective means for producing this kind of
compliance, but we might ask whether mere compliance is desirable:
To induce a nation to hold a democratic election is easier than to in-
duce the rulers of that nation to think and rule democratically.
In identification, the crucial component is attractiveness—the at-
tractiveness of the person with whom we identify. Because we iden-
tify with the model, we want to hold the same opinions that the
model holds. Suppose a person you admire takes a particular stand
on an issue. Unless you have strong feelings or solid information to
the contrary, there will be a tendency for you to adopt this position.
Incidentally, it is interesting to note that the reverse is also true: If a
person or group that you dislike announces a position, there will be
a tendency for you to reject that position or adopt the opposite po-
sition. Suppose, for example, that you dislike a particular group (say,
the Nazi party in the United States), and that group speaks out
against raising the minimum wage. If you know nothing about the
issue, your tendency will be to favor raising the minimum wage—all
other things being equal.