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Contractuality As A Means Of Conformity Analysis

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reveal that we are more likely to conform when we are made to feel incompetent or insecure, are in a group with at least three people, are in a group in which everyone else agrees, admire the group status and so on (Myers & DeWall, 2014). In essence, it means that in order to break from the accepted norm, it would mean to slow things down for others. If you find yourself walking down a crowded street and suddenly everyone drops down, almost certainly your first impulse is to drop down along with them although with a delayed response. The cost for a person to drop down with the crowd unexpectedly certainly outweighs the potential danger that is implied. There are many ways an individual can find themselves in a situation to conform. To conform …show more content…

Solomon Asch used a simple experiment to test this question. He devised an experiment in which he took college students and had them match the length of a line against the lengths of three others. Since the comparisons were quite simple, conforming to peer pressure meant that participants had to agree with the other students even when the other students were clearly wrong (Levine, J. M. 1999). To do so, the first two waves were set up in which to gain the trust of the participant by having all the students that were in on it, the confederates, answer correctly. But by the third wave, the confederates were told to answer incorrectly. One by one each confederate answered the same incorrect answer in which it set up a dilemma for the participant. The question then became whether or not the participant was bold enough to answer correctly and stick out or would they just answer the same to fit in because it is less uncomfortable and easier. However, around this time, many of the participants started to show clear signs of being uncomfortable and Asch found that around 73% of the participants caved into peer pressure and answered incorrectly at least once (Levine, J. M. …show more content…

Muzafer Sherif saw this as a situation in which an individual can be influenced by suggestion. To ready his experiment, he first placed participants individually inside a dark room and had them approximate the distance the light traveled. Consistently these participants, individually, came up with the approximation of 2-6 inches (Dewy, 2007). When the next round of the experiment came, Sherif placed participants with others effectively creating a group. As the participants reanalyzed the light, their perception eventually became aligned with the others in the room to more of an average of 4 inches (Dewy, 2007). For the final installment, the participants were again individually placed into a room by themselves and asked to reanalyze the light. The participants who were previously exposed to the group setting and had a fixed notion that the light was moving 2 inches now concluded that the light moved 4 inches (Dewy, 2007). The participants had conformed to the group norms instead of what they really though. The participants desire to conform was strong that they increased their conformities to fit into the group.
Conclusion
Cognitive dissonance is when we try to limit and reduce our feeling of discomfort when two opposing thoughts clash (Myers & DeWall, 2014). This often involves human individuality and conformity.

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