CONFORMITY OF BEHAVIORS AMONG STUDENTS 1
Conformity Behaviors Among Students
Anthonia George
The Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
This study is going to investigate whether the culture an individual is born and raised in could influence their level of conformity at an older age. Sixty college freshmen of American and Japanese background at The Pennsylvania State University are going to be randomly selected to perform three tasks that vary in their level of morality. It is hypothesized that the students from both cultures will show a significant difference in their level of conformity to tasks of varying morality levels. It is predicted that the Japanese students will have a higher level of conformity than the American students and as the task becomes more immoral, fewer participants will want to conform. The results are predicted to be that when participants are from a western culture they will conform less to tasks but when from a non-western culture they will conform more to the tasks. Also both cultures will conform less as the task presented to them becomes more immoral.
Conformity of Behaviors Among Students of Western and Non-Western Cultures
Conformity in my words can be defined as societal influences that cause humans to try to match their behaviors to others in order to either be liked by them or to feel a sense of belonging. It is fascinating to see how a person can go against their beliefs or values and conform to what others are doing just so they are accepted and liked. I myself have fallen into the trap of conformity so I can relate on how just because I wanted to fit in with my friends or not be the odd one out, I have done things that I will have never done if I were to have been alone. In this study, not only will the conformity of individuals be studied, the culture of the participant and morality level of task in relation to their level of conformity will be studied.
According to Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (2012), in their textbook titled Social Psychology, thetwo main factors that contribute to why people conform to certain tasks and behaviors are informational social influence and normative social influence. In ambiguous situations, humans conform because they believe that another person’s interpretation of an event is more accurate or holds more power and they use that other person as a source of information on what action to perform. This phenomenon is known as informational social influence and it mostly occurs in conditions with great ambiguity, crisis situations and when experts are involved (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2012). Normative social influence deals with the social nature of humans and how they have a need to be accepted by others (Aronson et al., 2012). People want to get social approval from others and an example of this will be how college students perform unruly acts such as underage drinking or illegal smoking so as to fit in with their peers who have pressured them to carry out this action.
In 1956, Solomon Asch conducted a series of experimentsto investigate which factors influenced the level of conformity. Asch’s journal article titled “Studies of Independence and Conformity: I: A Minority of One Against a Unanimous Majority”revealed a lot of information but there are three main ones that concern this study. The first being that conformity increases as group number increases but there is no effect on conformity after group size reaches four or five other people (Asch, 1956).Secondly, the level of conformity of an individual will increase when he or she has no allies in the group and when all the other people in the group are performing one unanimous action (Asch, 1956). Lastly, Asch’s research when replicated in other cultures also revealed that individuals from collectivist cultures tend to have a higher level of conformity (Asch, 1956).
In an article titled “Conformity of Behaviors Among Medical Students: Impact on Performance of Knee Arthrocentesis in Simulation”by Bernan, McLaughlin, Ansari, and Kassam (2012), the authors researched the topic of conformity among medical students.It was hypothesized that when performing a knee arthrocentesis procedure, the students will insert a needle into an incorrect location relative to the patella if they believed that their peers had also inserted a needle in the same incorrect location (Bernan, McLaughlin, Ansari, & Kassam, 2012).The hypothesis stated previously is important because on a daily basis humans are faced with the decision to either go with their own personal ideas and judgements or go along with the ideas of other people in order to fulfil the desire of acceptance and belonging. This desire then causes an individual to provide responses that are consistent with the majority even when the majority is incorrect.The results showed a significant difference in the puncture site of students in the control and experimental groups. A higher percentage of students in the control group placed the needle in the correct location while a higher proportion of students in the experimental group inserted the needle in the incorrect site as predicted in the hypothesis due to the holes that were already placed in the experimental model knee.It was then concluded by Bernan and colleagues(2012) that group conformity has a big negative effect on the performance of medical students and this conclusion was consistent with the predictions made. This article shows are prevalent group conformity is among students and how it could really impact their decisions.
The article titled “Conformity of Witnesses with Low Self-Esteem to their Co-Witnesses”by Tainaka, Miyoshi, and Mori (2014), investigated the conformity in co-witness memory experimental paradigms of Japanese female students with varying self-esteem levels. It was hypothesized that participants with low self-esteem will conform to their partners more frequently, while those with high self-esteem will stick to their own answers (Tainaka et al., 2014).The results were consistent with the predictions of the authors that participants with low self-esteem will conform to others but the participants with high self-esteem will not conform.This experiment is valuable because co-witness research is really important especially when it comes to conformity because if a witness actually understands this concept and has enough knowledge about it, he or she may not fall into the trap of conformity and possibly save an individual from going to jail.
In another articletitled“Standing in the Hallway Improves Students’ Understanding of Conformity” by Lawson, Haubner, and Bodle (2013), the authors perform an experiment to help psychology students become more aware of how they could be influenced by conformity.It was hypothesized that the students who were influenced by social pressures to conform during a hallway experiment will be more likely to show more knowledge of conformity when tested. On the first day of class for the experimental group of students, about four students showed up early and the instructor told them to stand outside in the hallway as an experiment to see how the other students will respond, the students were also instructed to talk with one another and then the instructor went back to his office (Lawson et al., 2013). The instructor returned about two minutes before the class was meant to begin and as predicted saw that the other students had joined the line in the hallway. The instructor asked why they were standing in the hallway and after hearing their responses invited them into the classroom and told the students to explain their behavior. The instructor then went ahead to give a 40 minute presentation on social psychology and he included conformity and obedience as topics. During the lecture, the students were informed that they had just been victims of conformity and at the end of the lecture they were instructed to complete a seven item questionnaire (Lawson et al., 2013). The students of the control group didn’t undergo the hallway experiment; they just came to class, sat down, received the same 40 minute lecture by the same professor and completed the questionnaire. The next class period, the students from both the experimental and control group were given a multiple choice quiz to assess their knowledge on conformity (Lawson et al., 2013). The results of the experiment revealed that students in the experimental groups showed more knowledge on the tests and more acknowledgement of personal conformity as they scored much more higher on the test than the students in the control group (Lawson et al., 2013).
The four articles described above shows that students are big victims of conformity when around their peers. Not only do they always want to be accurate but they also want to be socially accepted by others and this could cause them to perform acts that are not always in their best interests. It can also be noted from the Asch experiments that group conformity affected by normative influences can be increased by group size, group unanimity and culture (collectivist). The topic of this study is conformity among students of both western and non-western cultures. It was chosen to study these two cultures because western cultures tend to be more individualistic in nature while non-western cultures tend to be more collectivistic. The dependent variable of the study is the level of conformity of the students fromthe USA and Japan.The conceptual nature of my dependent variable is how much each individual from each culture will change their behavior as a result of real or imagined peer pressure when asked to perform certain tasks.My hypothesis to this research topic is that individuals (ages 18-24) from both western and non-western cultures will show a significant difference in their level of conformity to tasks of varying morality levels. It is predicted that the Japanese students will have a higher level of conformity than the American students and as the task becomes more immoral, fewer participants will want to conform regardless of culture. It is predicted that there will be a main effect for the 1st IV (culture) and the participants from the USAwill conform less while the ones from Japan conform more. It isalsopredicted that there will be a main effect for the 2nd IV (Morality of Task) because the more immoral the task becomes the more likely participants will not want to partake. An interaction is expected because the effect of the morality level of task (2nd IV) on the conformity level (DV)will depend on the culture of the participant (1st IV). If the participant is from the USA they will most likely stop conforming by the first immoral task but if the participant is Japanese, they will most likely continue conforming till the more extreme immoral task.
Method
Design
The design of this study is a 2 x 3 between subjectfactorial design and a participant-variable design. The first independent variable of the study is the culture of the participant. There are two levels of this independent variable. One is a western culture (USA) and the other is a non-western culture (Japan).The conceptual difference between the two levels of this independent variable is how culturally different the participants will be for the study. The second independent variable of this study will be type of task presented to the participants.This independent variable has three levels. The first level is a task with no moral cost that can be easily performed and will act as the control. The second is a task with low moral cost and the third is a task with moderate moral cost.The dependent variable of the study is the level of conformity of the students from both cultures.The conceptual nature of my dependent variable is how much each individual from each culture will change their behavior as a result of real or imagined peer pressure when asked to perform certain tasks.This study is a between subjects design because the differences between two different groups of participants are being studied.
Participants
The participants of this study will be college freshmen at The Pennsylvania State University. To recruit students for the study, flyers will be put up around the school (hallways, dining halls and bathrooms) requesting students originally from the United States or Japan to participate. In addition to the flyers, emails will be sent out to the general student population asking specifically for students born and raised in either the USA or Japan. An extra form of advertisement will be done to recruit Japanese students by not only placing flyers in the international student advising office but also telling the advisers to inform the students about the study. Each form of advertisement will inform the prospective participants that they will be offered a sum of 10 dollars if they participate. The prospective participantswill be told that the study is about understanding how students work in groups and individually. To recruit the confederates, the same means of advertisements will be used but it will be open for every student to participate in and will not be limited by culture of the individual, they will be offered the sum of 25 dollars. Thirtyindividualseach from USAand Japan will be randomly recruited giving a total of 60 participants. Only five randomly selected confederates will be recruited and they will be used in every experiment for all 60 of the participants so as to keep the settings of the study constant. One of the people running the study will act as an instructor in all of the experiments.
Materials
For this study, a standard classroom with six tables and chairs will be required. The tables and chairs will be arranged in a manner where they are right next to each other so that all the group members are sitting beside each other. There will also need to be a chalkboard and chalk in the class room as well as a teacher’s desk for the instructor. The participants will need to be prescreened to make sure their sense of self matches with the cultural label assigned to them with a quick survey (see Appendix). A consent form that explains the study and lists out the rights of the participant is needed. A 20 question math quiz and its answer sheet is required and lastly a survey for the participants at the end of the study. The survey will comprise of six questions asking the participants if they felt any group pressure, felt the need to conform, if they conformed, how many of the tasks they conformed to, why they conformed and why they did not conform if they didn’t.
Procedure
This experiment is going to be carried out in a classroom setting with an instructor and five other individuals who will be confederates. Each confederate will be properly trainedbeforehand in a series of lessons that will teach them the skills of being effective at their job. On the day of the study, the confederates will arrive thirty minutes earlier than the participant and they will be seated in the classroom with the instructor. When the participant arrives, he or she will be given a consent form to sign,after signing it, he or she will then be given a prescreening survey (see Appendix) that will test for how independent or interdependent (collectivistic) they are and if this matches their cultural label. The western participants are expected to be more independent and the non- western participants are expected to be more interdependent, if any of the participants do not match their label, their data will have to be taken out of the results. After taking the survey in a separate room, the participant will be directed to the classroom and told to take a seat beside his or her group members. Once the participant gets into the classroom and takes a seat, the instructor will tell the class that he will be returning shortly and will walk out of the classroom. One minute after he does this, one confederate will get up, walk to the front of the class and write his name on the chalk board, the next confederate follows, till all five of them have done this. This action of walking to the front of the class and writing a name on the chalk board is the task with no moral cost of the experiment. It is a reasonably simple, harmless task that all the participants will mostly do. When this is over, the instructor will walk back into the classroom and mention to the class that he has a family emergency and may need to leave the class on a regular basis to receive phone calls. He willwelcome the group to the study, introduce himself and tell everyone else to introduce themselves so as to get the participant acquainted with the rest of the group. He will give them a relatively easy fun group project of putting a puzzle together, so they can get to know themselves better. After this ice breaker activity, the instructor will thank them for coming and offer a big bag of candy but tell them that they can only have five pieces each at the most because he only has a limited amount of candy. He will give the bag to one of the confederates and tell him or her to take five at the most, pass it to the next person once done and after this the instructor will excuse himself to pick up a phone call. All the confederates will follow the rules at first but after a couple of minutes one of the confederates will mention that the instructor would never know if they took more than five, so all the confederates will simultaneously agree to take more candy. They will pass the bag around again and this time each confederate will take a handful of candy, it will be up to the participant to take more candy or just pass the bag along. This is the second task of low moral cost. The third task of the study will be for the students to complete a difficult 20 question multiple choice quiz individually that is based on some general math concepts. The instructor will tell the students that they will be paid an extra five dollars if they do well on the quiz but he will also warn them not to cheat off each other because if they get caught, theywould not be paid any sum of money as their resultswill have to be nullified. Once he relays this information to them, he will look at his phone and excuse himself from the classroom leaving the answer sheet on the table. Five minutes after the instructor leaves, one of the confederates will mention how difficult the quiz is and will suggest that they all cheat off the answer sheet on the teachers table. The other confederates will slowly but eventually all agree that they should cheat, so one of the confederates will get the answer sheet from the front desk and start passing it around. All the confederates will look at the paper but when it is passed on to the participant, he or she has the option of choosing to cheat or not to cheat. It will be recorded if the participant decided to partake in the moderate immoral task. It should be noted that the confederate that begins the first immoral act will be different from the one that begins the second immoral act. After being given 30 minutes to take the quiz, the instructor willget back into the classroom, collect the quizzes and tell the group that the study is over. The instructor will then go ahead to debrief the participant and tell the person to complete a survey that will ask questions about the three tasks and if they conformed, why or why not. The participant will be paid 10 dollars after the experiment and dismissed. After each of the 60 experiments, the data of each participant will be recorded. With the use of a hidden camera in the classroom each time a participant conforms completely to a task an outside observer will give them five points, if they conform to all three tasks they get 15 points, so the lowest score a participant can receive is 0 and the highest is 15. The points for each of the six conditions is averaged and recorded (see Table 1).