Explain one faction which influences conformity.

Conformity is a type of social influence, prevalent in all societies to a certain degree. Adhering to social norms through behavioural and or cognitive adjustments stems from social pressure (Myers, 2009 cited in Bergen, 2012). One factor which greatly contributes to conformity is unanimity. Unanimity occurs when there is a common consensus among all group members, and research suggests that it leads to increased conformity levels (Bhowmik, 2013). More specifically, conformity resulting from one’s desire to fit in, by avoiding rejection or gaining approval, is known as normative social influence. It often induces a phenomenon called cognitive dissonance, a state of contradiction between thought and action, causing discomfort; thus, one must conform or rationalise their opinion. Otherwise, conformity derived from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions as correct, is classified as informational social influence. A majority of research into conformity centres around an experiment known as Asch’s Paradigm (1951). The original experiment involved a group of confederates and one participant; all were asked questions based on their perceptions of lines, with the confederates giving prescribed answers. When using unanimity as the independent variable, conformity was most probable in situations of complete agreement, even with an incorrectly consensus (Asch, 1956). In fact, approximately 35% of responses coincided with the erroneous and unanimous majority. However, after implementing one social supporter – an individual providing a veridical answer against the incorrect majority – conformity decreased substantially, to an average of 5%. Another variation implemented a confederate whom again, disagreed with the incorrect majority, but still answered incorrectly; under the ‘extreme dissent conditions’, conformity levels decreased to 9%. The first principle of sociocultural psychology states that humans are social animals with the basic need to belong (Hannibal, 2012). In relation to unanimity, this innate drive to ‘belong’ justifies why conformity levels are higher when there is a consensus. Another relevant premise, is that humans not only have an individual identity but also a social self. This was demonstrated in Asch’s study, through participants answering the same incorrect answer as the group, to prove their ‘social self’, despite internally disagreeing. This relates to cognitive dissonance resulting from normative social influence. Alternatively, participants conformed in all three experiments, possibly because they assumed the group members collectively, knew better than they did individually, resultantly trusting the group’s judgement over their own.