How conformity can lead to polarised social behaviour

Abstract

Learning social behaviour of others strongly influences one’s own social attitudes. We compare several distinct explanations of this phenomenon, testing their predictions using computational modelling across four experimental conditions. In the experiment, participants chose repeatedly whether to pay for increasing (prosocial) or decreasing (antisocial) the earnings of an unknown other. Halfway through the task, participants predicted the choices of an extremely prosocial or antisocial agent (either a computer, a single participant, or a group of participants). Our analyses indicate that participants polarise their social attitude mainly due to normative expectations. Specifically, most participants conform to presumed demands by the authority (vertical influence), or because they learn that the observed human agents follow the norm very closely (horizontal influence).

Social value orientation modulates behavioral and neural responses to social influence

“…The phenomenon of being influenced by others to change one's attitude or behavior and conform to that of others is called social conformity (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004 ). In ambiguous situations, conformity can, on the one hand, increase the correctness of decisions; on the other hand, remaining consistent with others can result in social acceptance, thus maintaining good social relations and improving the sense of belonging (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004 ; Mahmoodi et al, 2022 ; Panizza et al, 2021 ; Toelch & Dolan, 2015 ). However, the social influence information received by individuals may be positive or negative.…”

Personality and psychopathological characteristics in functional movement disorders

“…Remarkably, P responses strictly reflect the individual ability to get involved in popular thinking, "social standards" and conformity. The "conformity" behavior, as part of the social implicit expectations, deeply affects one's own social attitudes leading to a voluntary behavioral change to imitate peers' behavior and respond to normative rules [15]. Interestingly, previous studies have hypothesized that the strict adherence to social compliance and conformity may represent a compensatory strategy…”