PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 57: Muzafer Sherif, Leon Festinger, Physical Attractiveness

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jill L Atkinson

Document Summary

Conformity - occurs when we adjust our behaviours or attitudes to coincide with a group norm. In society, we always need some conformity to function safely and effectively. Conformity can be private (a change in both behaviours and beliefs) or public (when a person demonstrates superficial changes in overt behaviour only). Muzafer sherif 1936 experiment had men sit in a dark room with a light in front of them. They had to estimate how far the light moved. In point of fact that light never moved. This was repeated several times and people tended to give the same answers. When they were put into a group of 3 the people in the group started to homogenize their answers despite that fact that they had previously been different. This is an example of the need we have for in group conformity. Another example is the asch line test conformity of an objective judgment.