1.1.1 Types of Conformity

• Conformity occurs when:
  • someone changes their usual behaviour to fit in with the behaviour of the group 
  • someone feels that they will be rejected by the group if they do not align their behaviour with the group's behaviour
  • someone may express opinions that align with those of the group even if they do not (secretly) agree with those opinions
  • someone may feel a  sense of group pressure which leads to them going along with the group (even if such pressure is only in their imagination)
• All of the above examples of conformity are examples of majority influence i.e. the few are influenced by the many

What are the different types of conformity? 

Compliance 

• Compliance involves someone agreeing with/behaving like the group on the outside/publicly but disagreeing with/having different opinions to the group on the inside/privately, for example:
  
  • Someone may eat only vegetarian food and claim to be vegetarian with a particular group of friends, but they still eat meat when they are not with that group
  • Laughing at a joke which someone does not find funny (and may in fact find offensive) because everyone else is laughing
• This is the weakest type of conformity as it only involves surface/superficial change and it ceases when someone is not with the group

Identification

• Someone may temporarily adopt the behaviour of a role model or group if they value the group and wish to be included in it
• Identification may involve someone conforming to the expectation of a social role (e.g. police officers, nurses, teachers)
• Some examples of identification include: 
  • Someone dressing in the same style as a group of people at college as they admire them and would like to be part of that group
  • A teacher believes that detentions are a waste of time but they still issue detentions on a daily basis as this is school policy
• Changes in behaviour driven by identification are usually short-term as the individual is still not completely in agreement with the group (if only in private)

Internalisation

• Internalisation occurs when someone not only accepts and agrees with the group publicly but also privately i.e. they have internalised the group's norms 
• This is the strongest type of conformity, leading to long-term change
• Some examples of internalisation include: 
  • Someone becomes wholly involved in the attitudes, ideals and behavioiurs of an extreme political group, renouncing all of their former beliefs and possibly cutting ties with people from their past
  • Someone moves to a new school and changes the way they dress, their hobbies, their attitudes etc. to align with classmates from the new school