Conformity, Obedience and Deindividuation
What Is Social Influence?
Social influence is the area of psychology that studies how other people change what we think, feel and do. There are four key terms you need to know precisely: obedience, conformity, deindividuation, and the bystander effect. Each describes a different way that other people — or being part of a crowd — can change how we behave.
Obedience means following a direct order from an authority figure. Conformity means matching the unspoken behaviour or beliefs of a majority. Deindividuation means losing your sense of individual identity in a crowd. The bystander effect means being less likely to help when others are present.
Conformity to Majority Influence
Conformity happens when we change our behaviour or beliefs to fit in with what most people around us are doing or thinking — this is also called majority influence. Psychologists want to know why people follow the crowd even when they privately disagree. Two things shape how likely someone is to conform: their personality and the situation they are in.
Personality matters because people with a strong need for social approval are more likely to conform — they fear standing out or being rejected by the group. People who are naturally confident in their own judgement, or who have relevant expertise in the topic, are less likely to conform because they trust their own view more than the majority’s.
The situation also matters. Conformity tends to rise when the group is larger (though the effect levels off beyond a certain size), when a person must give their answer publicly rather than privately, and when the task is difficult and the correct answer is unclear. In these situations people doubt their own judgement and look to others for reassurance.
Personality factors affecting conformity include need for approval (increases it) and confidence or expertise (decreases it). Situational factors include group size, whether a response is public or private, and task difficulty — harder, more public situations increase conformity.
Obedience to Authority
Obedience is different from conformity. Instead of following the unspoken pressure of a crowd, obedience means following the direct instruction of someone in a recognised position of power. Like conformity, obedience is affected by both personality and the situation.
Some people are more likely to obey because of their personality. A person with strong respect for rules and hierarchy, or who finds it hard to challenge someone in a position of power, is more likely to obey even a harmful instruction. A person with an independent streak and confidence in their own moral judgement is more likely to resist.
Several features of a situation make obedience more likely. A legitimate authority figure — someone with a recognised right to give orders — is obeyed far more readily than someone without status. Physical closeness of the authority figure, wearing a uniform or symbol of authority, and having group support from others who are also obeying all increase the likelihood of obedience. When one person disobeys and others see this happen, obedience drops sharply, showing how much we look to the people around us for cues about how to behave.
Deindividuation in Crowds
Deindividuation is a state where being part of a large group or crowd causes a person to lose their sense of individual identity. Feeling anonymous within a crowd — especially when wearing similar clothing or a mask, or when it is dark or noisy — reduces a person’s sense of personal accountability. They feel less like themselves and less responsible for their own actions.
Because deindividuated people feel less personally accountable, crowds can produce both anti-social behaviour, such as violence or vandalism that an individual would not commit alone, and pro-social behaviour, such as a crowd working together to help someone in danger. Which outcome happens often depends on what behaviour the crowd itself seems to expect or reward in that moment.
The Bystander Effect
The bystander effect describes the finding that a person is less likely to help someone in an emergency when other people are present, compared with when they are alone. Each bystander assumes someone else will act, so responsibility to help feels shared and diluted rather than resting on any one person. You will look at this in more depth, alongside a classic field study, in a later lesson on this topic.
Preventing Blind Obedience
Blind obedience means following orders without question, even when doing so conflicts with a person’s own morals. Psychologists have suggested several ways this can be reduced. Seeing another person disobey a wrongful order — a disobedient role model — encourages others to resist too, because it breaks the belief that the order must be followed. Teaching people how situational pressures such as legitimate authority and group support actually work can make them more aware and better able to resist unquestioning compliance.
Encouraging individuals to take personal responsibility for their own actions, rather than shifting all the blame onto the authority figure, also reduces blind obedience. Removing anonymity so that people feel personally identifiable and accountable, and giving people time to pause and reflect before acting, both make it less likely that someone will follow a harmful instruction without question.
Blind obedience can be reduced by exposure to a disobedient role model, education about situational pressures, encouraging personal responsibility, removing anonymity, and allowing time for reflection before acting.