Are People Likely to Conform When They Are in a Small Group or a Large Group?

At one point in my life, a friend attended a modern art museum and a prestigious art school. One day I offered to join him with a couple of his friends for a museum tour. The tour was amusing as I had not seen such artwork before. However, the tour guide explained one of the museum's canvas artworks in one instance, saying its value surpassed a million dollars. I was staring at the artwork; on the other hand, my friends seemed to agree on the specialty of the artwork. I also found myself pretending to understand to fit into the group and not seem out of touch. But my friends were more involved in artwork before thus in a better position to understand the value than myself. Now, the situation presented the best example of group conformity.

People are likely to conform in a large group but in a non-linear way. According to Nyczka et al. (2020), the group size affects the conformity level of the groups. However, at a certain point, the non-conformity is significant to extremely large groups. Large groups promote conformity in individuals more than small groups until a certain number is attained, where the effects are unrecognized. Analysis from the study perfectly embraces the proposed research on conformity and non-conformity. Using the q-voter model simulation analysis mechanism aided the research in critically analyzing models of social influence under different groups. Also, the effective use of a computerized artificial environment amidst agents gave rise to the study results. Internal psychological processes implied from the results are crucial to understanding group dynamics; thus, group size significantly impacts individual decisions.

People will likely change in a large group in response to expectations and pressure. Informative and normative are main majority influence types impacting individual behavior patterns (Votaw, 2020). Reviews of different theories in the study were the main methodology to fuel results. For example, Sherif's autokinetic effect and Asch's conformity studies where the reviews from the latter presented the way individuals succumb to large group pressure admitting to expectations. Many individuals change their behavioral patterns to align themselves with the majority perception. Results from the reviews confirm higher chances of individuals conforming to larger groups than smaller ones. Owing to the research, the methodology effectively studied the majority influence and achieved results compliant with the psychological motivation concerns. Therefore, the study aligns with the research question and significantly illustrates conformity through group influence.

Public scrutiny and social hierarchy influence conformity in large groups. The study sampled 60 university students to investigate their response to public scrutiny and social hierarchy under hierarchical pressures and varying anonymity. The hypothesis from the investigation found that individuals conform to super-ordinate figures when working under observation. Results from the study indicated increased enhancement and conformity when high-ranking officials are on watch (Kim et al., 2020). Therefore, the hypothesis's result aligns with the question by illustrating a well-defined response in large groups. For example, the evaluation from the study compares current research studies to the historical data and performs integration, thus effectively presenting a conformity process. Also, the size factor directly addressed in the research aligns with the research question.

Individual conformity rises with the rise in number of people. According to Ramgopal (2023), a large group of people is vividly explained in the research, among other factors such as gender and culture as the major factors contributing to conformity. The research adapts Gefen's line judgment experiments to examine individual decision-making processes due to the pressure effect. The methodology of the historical experiment pointed out the impact of group size conformity on wrong group responses. The result from the study indicates that conformity is significant within a group up to a certain level or number where individuals cannot present more conformity. Therefore, the results from the study effectively related to the study question due to group size and conformity relationship implications.

Conformity increases with increased group size, even when presented with wrong beliefs. The methodology of Asch conformity experiments fits the study. The overall methodology involved the use of different numbers of confederates and the recording of the experimental results. Resultantly, the conformity level increased with the number of confederates (Cherry, 2023). By using the aspect of dissenting confederates and unanimity, conformity seemed to decrease. Therefore, the research maintains relevance to the study question as the results support the hypothesis of group size limits and their effect on conformity. From the experiment description, large groups have an immense return on individual decision-making influence.