Normative Conformity

1. The two major types of social influence leading to conformity is informational social influence and normative social influence.
• Informational social influence or “social proof”, our desire to be right in situations in which the correct action or judgement is not obvious and we need information. Example: On your way to a concert, but not sure where the entrance is, lots of people are going in a certain direction, you follow everyone else. You follow because you lack the information so you do whatever everyone else is doing (they must know something you don’t know).
• Normative social influence, our desire to gain approval and to avoid disapproval of others. We change our behavior to meet the expectations of others and gain acceptance.
Example: