Psych

The Effects of Social Pressure
On
Conformity


























BACKGROUND

Social compliance (Asch 1951, 1952) is defined as the act of giving in to demands or requests, under the influence of a group of peers or authority figures. Social compliance is a large part of psychology and how ones beliefs and views are formed. Those who have low self-esteem are easily swayed to agree with what those who are around them say and sometimes do. Another form of social compliance is conformity. Conformity is the changing of your ideas in order to fit the ideas of those around you. In the study of conformity and social compliance, two psychologists lead the way in this field: Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram. Both psychologists were instrumental in the findings of how people react to differing interactions with peers and authority figures. Asch ran a study on how people reacted when in a group ...