Active learning ideas
Conformity is the tendency to change our behaviour or beliefs to match those of a group. Students explore Solomon Asch's landmark research into majority influence and the reasons why people 'go along' with the crowd, even when they know the crowd is wrong. They also examine how individual personality traits, or dispositional factors, can make someone more or less likely to conform.
Activity 01
Replicate a simplified version of Asch's experiment. A few 'confederates' in the class purposely give the wrong answer to a simple visual task to see if the 'naive' participant will conform to the majority view.
Why do individuals conform to a majority?
Activity 02
Students think of a time they conformed to a group. They discuss in pairs whether they did it to 'be right' (informational influence) or to 'be liked' (normative influence) and share their findings with the class.
What was Asch's conformity experiment?
Activity 03
Groups research dispositional factors like self-esteem, locus of control, and expertise. They create a 'Conformity Profile' for a person who is highly likely to resist group pressure and one who is highly likely to follow it.
How does personality affect the likelihood of conforming?
A few notes on teaching this unit
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Conformity is always a bad thing.
Conformity helps society function by creating shared norms, like driving on the correct side of the road. A 'pros and cons' debate can help students see the functional side of social influence.
Only 'weak' people conform.
Asch's research showed that even intelligent, independent people conform in certain situations. Using a simulation helps students feel the genuine social pressure that makes conformity a universal human experience.
Methods used in this brief
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