The Impact of Morality on Likelihood to Conform

Indianapolis, IN

Everyone has a moral code, but the urge to conform can be powerful in social situations. Little research has been conducted on conformity and morality, though previous studies suggest a link between religious beliefs and submissiveness (Saroglou et al., 2009). The current experiment was designed to test the effects of morality on conformity. Participants will consist of male and female students enrolled in psychology courses at Franklin College. All groups will be given Aquino and Reed's Moral Identity Scale (MIS; 2002) with distractor items. The experimental group will be told that they are taking a survey about their level of morality. The experimenters will refrain from priming the control group to think about their morals. The participants will be asked to answer basic questions aloud, but one participant will have a different question than the rest of the group. Conformity will be measured by whether that participant changes his or her answer to match the group. The researchers hypothesize that individuals primed to think about their morality and who are highly moral according to the MIS will be less likely to conform, while individuals not primed and deemed to have lower morals will be more likely to conform. The results of this study will shed light on the effects of morality on conformity, which is important because many adults seem to believe they would stick to their beliefs even in the face of conflict.