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Conformity as a function of task generalization and relative competence
Author(s) -
Geller Sheldon H.,
Endler Norman S.,
Wiesenthal David L.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2420030104
Subject(s) - conformity , psychology , social psychology , competence (human resources) , generalization , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , mathematics , mathematical analysis
Subject correctness and group agreement were varied for college subjects engaged in a light discrimination task. On another task, employing multiple‐choice questions about Canada, the dependent variable of conformity was assessed to examine generalization of relative competence formed on the light discrimination task. It was seen that (1) relative competence was seen to mediate conformity for a specific task (Canadian Knowledge Inventory), but did not generalize across tasks (i.e. from the light discrimination task to the Canadian Knowledge Inventory); (2) with respect to the Canadian Knowledge Inventory, subjects who perceived themselves as more competent than the group did not conform as much as those who either perceived themselves as less competent than or as competent as the group; (3) the experimental manipulations did not affect conformity, further supporting the findings that perceived competence does not generalize across classes of tasks; (4) females conformed more than males: and (5) nonsuspicious subjects conformed more than suspicious subjects.