Conformity: It is a most indirect form of social influence in which individuals change their behaviour or beliefs to correspond more closely to the behaviour of others in the group. It essentially involves yielding to group pressure. 

• People conform because it is comfortable. 

• Non-conformity is socially undesirable and many a times punishable offence. 

• Most people believe that majority is always right, so it is better to conform. 

• Whenever individual gets confused and not confident he/she conforms. 

• Conformity provides assurance that individual is right. 

People conform because of two types of influences: 

1. Informational Influence, i.e., influence that results from accepting evidence rather than reality. 

• It is social influence based on individuals desire to be correct—to possess accurate perceptions of the social world. We conform because we have a strong desire to hold the right views. We want to be correct about various matters so we turn to other persons for guidance as to what is appropriate, e.g., if children see that, in the colony, no body is playing in the park then they get information from the actions of others that | park should not be used as playground. This is behaving according to evidence then from reality. 

2. Normative influence, i.e., influence based on a person’s desire to be accepted or admired by others. Individual follows the reality and conforms. We conform in order to meet other’s expectations and so to gain their approval, e.g., if we see rules written on the board outside the park that playing in the park is prohibited then children avoid playing there. 

Sheriff’s experiment known as auto-kinetic effect and Asch’s experiment prove that people do get carried away by the social influence whenever taking decisions. 

Determinants of Conformity: 

The degree of conformity among the group-members is determined by many factors which are as follows: 

1.  Size of the Group: 

(i) Conformity is greater when the group is small. It happens because it is easier for a deviant member to be noticed in a small group. 

(ii) In a large group, if there is strong agreement among most of the members, conformity makes the majority and its norms stronger. In such a case, the minority would be more likely to conform because the group pressure would be stronger. 

2. Size of the Minority: When the deviating minority size increases, the likelihood , of conformity decreases. 

3. Nature of the Task: 

• Where there is something like a correct or an incorrect answer, conformity is more. 

• Where answers can vary widely without any answer being correct or incorrect,conformity would be less. 

4. Public or Private Expression of Behaviour: 

• If the group-members are asked to give their answers publicly, conformity is more. 

• Less conformity is found under private expression. 

5. Personality Characteristics: 

• Some individuals have a conforming personality that is tendency to change their behaviour according to what others say or do in most situations and vice- versa.