Lecture 7 - Group Conformity, Opinion Leaders, & Peer Pressure

Group Conformity

An online dictionary defines conformity as:
"adjusting one's behaviour or thinking to match those of other people or a group standard"

There are lots of reasons why people conform, including the desire/need to fit in or be accepted by others and maintaining order in ones life. For example, when you go to class, do you sit in a chair like other students or sit in the aisle? Do you face the front of the room like everyone else or do you sit facing the back wall? Why? Well, according to Muzafer Sherif (he was one of the most influential conformity researchers in psychological history), "When the external surroundings lack stabile, orderly reference points, the individuals caught in the ensuing experience of uncertainty mutually contribute to each other a mode of orderliness to establish their own orderly pattern." (Sherif, 1996).

Firstly; we were told a story about monkeys, and how they conform to one another. This was because when new monkeys were introduced to the group, they were instant outcasts, and had to realise that they had to conform to the group and do what they say to be accepted.

Groups

A group is two or more individuals who: share a set of norms, have role relationships, and experience independent behaviours.

Groups influence the socialisation process. These influence what we learn and how we behave. This may provide the individual with the 'accepted' skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society.

Societies are formed through these main factors:

• Shared norms
• Customs
• Values
  
• Traditions
  
• Social Roles
  
• Symbols
  
• Languages
  

From experience, I can agree that people tend to conform to groups through these shared norms. Since coming to Bucks New Uni I became part of the hockey society. Which has resulting in this group expended to be part of the huge sports society.
Some people may say our behaviour is undesirable... This can be shown with brands too. For example Burberry's iconic jackets, scarf, and caps have been mis interpreted by the public. This has had a huge impact on Burberry's brand - bringing it mass amounts of bad publicity. This is shown in a article by The Mail where they outwardly said that "The luxury brand with a chequered past, Burberry's shaken off its chav image to become the fashionistas' favourite once again". Obviously a crisis like this is rather hard to retrieve their original brand image.
To try and regain their original image, paper adverts were made using a very influential model - Kate were made targeting the more upper class of people. This was done through using Kate Moss. By using models with this status it gives the brand their status back.

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

Maslows hierarchy of needs has a great deal to do with people conforming to groups, and becoming part of a chosen society. Maslow addresses the following factors:

• Self Actualisation
  
• Esteem needs
• Belonging needs
  
• Safety needs
  
• Psychological needs

Obviously off all these are important factors to consider if you are a marketeer. They tend to realise that 'man is a social animal' and needs unconditional positive regard. As well as children who learn through conditional positive regard. The most important part of the hierarchy is the sense of BELONGING. This is because advertisers use this as a pivotal message in ad campaigns.

Social Comparison Theory - Festinger 1954

This theory suggests that there is a drive within individuals to look to outside images in order to evaluate their own opinions and abilities. These images may be a reference to physical reality or in comparison to other people. People look to the images portrayed by others to be obtainable and realistic, and subsequently, make comparisons among themselves, others and the idealized images.

Consumers are also subject to this behaviour. Consumers are extremely selective about who they use for benchmarks for their brands. In general, for social comparisons, people tend to choose a Co-Orientated Peer, or a person of the equivalent standing.

Group Behaviour depends on Perception

How do you perceive these pictures?


Everyone interprets different images individually, meaning our perspective differs from one another. This affects what groups we become part of as I have already mentioned that people make or join groups by having shared norms.

Group Behaviour

Similarly; to the monkeys another study was conducted at Stanford County Prison by a man called Zimbardo. This study can be found here. From this study you can easily recognise that because the participants knew how prison guards acted in real life, they immediately took these roles on. This then progressed to the other guards are they conformed as a group. Most people will conform to a group through positive reinforcement from other member of the group and the fear of negative sanctions.

Group Norms and Pressure

Everyone is subject to pressure within their chosen groups. This can be from group behaviour - so acting in a way they would not otherwise. Or the pressure to change they way they look. This is seen within both genders. For example males at a gym always try and out do one another by body building - which sometimes results in the use of steroids. And females ALWAYS have the pressure to look better to appeal to the males - which sometimes results in plastic surgery.


The main influence of groups is the acceptance of certain expectations of behaviour e.g norms, and rules. An individual can react to this pressure by: compliance, internalisation and identification, or counter conformity.

The link between Behaviour and Social Marketing

Social marketing became apparent when in the 1970's when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to "sell" ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler and Andreasen define social marketing as:

"differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society."

This technique has been used extensively in international health programs, especially for contraceptives and oral rehydration therapy (ORT), and is being used with more frequency in the United States for such diverse topics as drug abuse, heart disease and organ donation.

This can be seen in most adverts nowadays. This video explains why social marketing is a must...



Summary

As you can see there are many factors that influence the way a person behaves whether it be individually or within a group. Marketers and advertisers have full taken advantage of this, enabling them to connect at a higher level with their consumers.