How do standards and conformity influence each other? - Chapter 9

A social group is a group of people who share characteristics or traits. Examples of this are interests, age and gender. A "face to face" group consists of two or more persons who interact and influence each other.

Social norms

In general, a person is looking for solidarity with others. Because people are very strongly influenced by the behavior and ideas of others, interaction or communication, the behavior, the feeling and the thoughts of different people within a group are becoming increasingly similar.

Social norms (see Chapter 5) are generally accepted ways of thinking, feeling or behaving. These thoughts, feelings and behaviors are, according to the members of the group, the correct ones and thus actually represent the group evaluation of the correct and incorrect behavior of a certain group. Social norms are equal to attitudes in the sense that they are both mental representations of appropriate thoughts, feelings and behaviors. But where attitudes represent the positive or negative evaluations of an individual, standards present the evaluations of the group with regard to what is true or false, good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate. Sometimes a distinction is made between descriptive norms (what and group thinks, feels or does) and injunctive norms (what people should think, feel or do).

Conformity

Conformity is the equality in thoughts, feelings or behaviors of a person to a certain social norm. Conformity takes place because it is assumed that the own group is correct and because they want to be accepted and approved by their own group. In general, group standards are adopted and immediately seen as correct and appropriate. Private compliance happens when people are really convinced that the group is right. They accept the group norms consciously and benevolently as their own, even if the group is no longer physically present. However, sometimes one publicly agrees with the group norm, while one does not accept the norm in private life. This inequality between public acceptance and private rejection of the idea is called public conformity: show open behavior that is consistent with social norms that have not been made. Often people do not make their opinions public because of fear of rejection by the group.

In collective cultures the level of conformity is very high. In individualistic cultures the level of conformity is lower, but still present.

Motivational functions of conforming to standards

The main reason people conform to standards is because we expect everyone to see the world in the same way. This expectation consists of two parts. First of all, we expect others to see the world as we see it. The false consensus effect indicates that it is often overestimated to what extent others agree with your views. The second part is that we expect us to see the world as others see it. Private compliance often arises because we expect to see the world in the same way as others. We often assume that people share our opinions and preferences. The fact that someone thinks that his or her views are shared with others makes us more confident that our beliefs are correct, while the lack of this agreement makes us doubt this.

There are a number of reasons why people conform: to be in control, to be connected, and to the "me and mine" (reference groups) motive.

Motive 1: in contol. It is often assumed that a corresponding opinion says something about reality. The need for control is fulfilled in this way by compliance with group standards. We believe that the group has more knowledge than we do, so accepting their input is a logical step if we want to make better decisions. Two types of group influence apply to conformity, namely informational and normative influence. The informational influence applies to this motive for control.

Informational influence ensures that members of a group adhere to the norms because they believe that the norms of the group represent reality. In this case you could say that one agrees because one does not know better (one does not know, or can not see / hear well and for that reason goes with other people's convictions). This form of influence has to do with the motivation for control.

Motive 2: (social) solidarity. By agreeing with others there is a feeling of (social) solidarity. This is accompanied by a good self-esteem, a good self-image and a good well-being. The second type of group influence that applies to conformity is the motive of connectedness, and concerns the normative influence:

Normative influence means that members of a group agree with each other to obtain a positive social identity. In this case you could say that one takes the opinion of others so that he or she is put in a good light.

In general, the need for control in performing intellectual tasks takes precedence over the need for connectedness. In assessment tasks there is more need for solidarity than for control. Often the needs for commitment and control are simultaneously fulfilled by conformity with group norms.

Motive 3 : "me and mine" motive (reference groups). People expect to agree with those who have the same attributes that are relevant to the decision at that time. A reference group is a group of people that someone goes to when they need help with an evaluation or decision. In-groups often serve as reference groups, and people are much more influenced by in-group members (people from their own group) than by out-group members (people from another group). This is because we assume that we do not have the same opinion as people from another group. In intellectual tasks, many different people can serve as a reference because there is only one correct answer. In an assessment people are often consulted with equal values ​​and attitudes.

Conformity to a group takes place both when members of the group are present and when they are not present. However, the effect is stronger as soon as group members are present. If the members identify strongly with their group and if they often interact with the group, the group has more impact.

Although in specific circumstances the one motive may be more important than the other motive (control, solidarity or "me and mine"), all three motives are met if you agree with the in-group members.

Social influencing processes

Usually the majority of the group members at the beginning already have a preference for a certain side of the discussion. The reason for this is that people often associate with others who share the same view and groups often arise from shared opinions and interests. When the majority of a group agrees with each other, communication and interaction often causes the group to move to an even more extreme position than they initially held. For example: if most were not racist at first, they become even less racist through group discussion. Such group polarization - the process in which a group average becomes more extreme as a result of "face to face" group interaction - has been studied and confirmed in many different countries and cultures.Whether group polarization will take place is independent from the manner of processing (superficially or systematically):

Group polarization can occur if information is processed in a superficial way: by having confidence in other people's viewpoints. This is because people who have a different opinion take the consensus of the majority and because they like to be seen as the best member of the group and want to show the ideals of the group.

Group polarization also occurs in systematic processing. In this case it is because people pay attention to the arguments of others in important decisions. The arguments of the majority are more expressed and discussed, and seem more compelling - and are also presented as more compelling - than other arguments.

If one in a group does not completely agree on a certain issue and opinions are equally divided, this often results in depolarization. Depolarization is the opposite of polarization and is the effect in which the final outcome of a group is more moderate than the opinions of the individuals prior to the discussion.

"Risky shift" is the effect of making riskier decisions in a group than if he or she were in his / her own. This also has to do with group pressure.

The search for consensus can also go wrong

Consensus implies that opinions are valid and can therefore be trusted, but this only applies when the consensus is achieved in a good way. There are a few reasons why or situations when the consensus reached can not be trusted:

• Public compliance: someone will not conform to someone of whom he or she knows that consistent behavior is being shown with respect to a standard that they do not support in their private lives.

• If you come to a consensus without thinking about the relevant information yourself.

• If there is a common bias.

• If a consensus has been reached as a result of public conformity, pollution through common bias and / or without thinking for yourself to agree with others, it is only an illusion that the consensus meets the norms of control and (social) solidarity. This can lead to situations of pluralistic ignorance: everyone shows public conformity while they all disagree in private life. To prevent this effect, it is important to become aware of the actual opinion of others.

Group thinking

Group thinking ("groupthink"), a term introduced a long time ago by Janis (1972), is the process by which decisions made by / within a group become worse by the drive to reach consensus. This is not an effective process for forming consensus. It reduces the quality of the group decisions.

Group thinking often arises when the group is under pressure to make a decision quickly and when members strongly identify with the group. People find unanimity more important than defending their own opinion. If the group is able to overestimate it, it is also more likely that group thinking arises. Finally, group thinking occurs more often in decision-making procedures, where errors are made in information processing.

Characteristics of group thinking are:

• Situations in which consensus is reached while hardly any thought has been given to the evidence. This is explained by the so-called collective rationalization. In this case, the group is reinforcing its decision instead of testing the consensus. Also, the so-called "mind guard", a person who protects the members against information that conflicts with the consensus, can stand in the way of effectively producing a consensus.

• Consensus can be obtained without acceptance within public confirmation.

• Consensus can be contaminated because the opinions of the members are not independent of each other (often one adjusts the opinion to that of another).

Countering group thinking can be done in different ways. First of all, it can be countered by the avoidance of bias. All information must be considered and information that at first glance contradicts the overall idea must not be avoided, which means that alternatives must be carefully discussed and challenged. Furthermore, there must be less pressure for public conformity, leading to an apparent but misleading consensus. Public votes should therefore be the exception rather than the rule. The role of the leader must also be minimized, so that an equal contribution is made for each group member. Finally, it is important that members of the group are high in diversity, since people with different backgrounds often see a problem from different angles.In this way the chance of shared distortions is countered as much as possible. All these opinions are the same: ensure that all opinions (and not just those of the majority) are heard. The best way to accomplish this is to do everything possible to give the minority group a voice.

Minority influence

In general, a lot of value is placed on the opinion of the majority of the group. Yet this is not always fair and effective. There are a number of ways in which minority ideas can influence the majority. In this case it is important that the minority group remains consistent, encourages systematic processing, offers an alternative consensus and that a balance is found between the differences and similarities with the majority.

Double minorities are groups of people who have a different opinion of the rest of the group and also clearly differ from the majority. In this way, double minorities are extra disadvantaged.

Processes of majority and minority influences

Majority and minority influences can both influence others. This is done through the same processes. They can meet the need for control and connectedness, promote both superficial (heuristic) and systematic processing of the information and they can generate public or private conformity.

Although the consensus of the majority often helps people to feel that they understand reality (motive "control"), consistent opposition from a minority group can make people doubt the validity of the majority position. In addition, although majorities often give positive identities to members of the group, not everyone wants to be part of such a team. A minority identity can be very attractive (independent, "different from others", innovative, rebellious, etc.).

The best way to achieve group-based, effective norm formation and consensus is by looking for and forming precisely those standards through which the group members become critical (re-) thinkers within the group. When the group members try to reach consensus on the basis of systematic processing (sorting out alternatives), independent of pollution through bias and private conformity, their need for control and connectedness will contribute to their cooperation in order to arrive at a valid consensus.