Which of the following best describes the relationship between group size and conformity?
A As the number of people increases, the degree to which we conform is directly proportional.
B Group size only influences conformity when groups are crowd size.
C Conformity increases as the group grows to about five. Additional members make little or no difference. D There is no relationship between group size and our likelihood to conform. Grading Maxim
The correct answer and explanation is:
Correct Answer: C. Conformity increases as the group grows to about five. Additional members make little or no difference.
Explanation (300 words):
The relationship between group size and conformity has been extensively studied in social psychology, particularly through the work of Solomon Asch in his classic conformity experiments during the 1950s. These experiments demonstrated that people are more likely to conform to the group’s opinion, even when it is clearly incorrect, under certain conditions—one of which is group size.
Asch found that conformity increases with group size, but only up to a point. When participants were placed in a group where others (actually confederates of the researcher) unanimously gave wrong answers, the real participant often conformed. However, the rate of conformity was not linear.
- When the group size increased from 1 to 3 people, conformity increased significantly.
- After about 4 or 5 people, adding more members made little additional impact on the likelihood of conformity.
- Once a group had five or more members, the conformity effect plateaued, and further increases in group size had minimal effect.
This suggests that social pressure becomes most influential in moderately sized groups, but the effect doesn’t keep growing indefinitely with larger groups.
Option A is incorrect because the relationship is not directly proportional beyond a certain point.
Option B is incorrect as crowd size is not a standard variable in conformity studies.
Option D is incorrect because many studies clearly show a relationship between group size and conformity, though it is non-linear.
Therefore, Option C best captures the psychological reality: Conformity increases with group size, but only up to about five people, after which it levels off. This understanding helps explain how peer pressure works in small group settings, like classrooms, work teams, or friend groups.