Abstract

A set of alternative hypotheses in a group pressure situation was testified experimentally. The hypotheses were as follows: Hypothesis I. If the group pressure exerts variable effects in relation with the difficulty of task in conformity situation, that is, easy task is less susceptible to the group pressure and difficult one more, then the confidence of the task will be a variable to account for the conforming behavior. Hypothesis II. If the hypothesis I is not proved, that is, the effect of group pressure is constant regardless of the difficulty of the task in conformity situation, confidence of the task could not account for the effect of group pressure, and a variable other than confidence should be assumed. Seventeen stimuli were selected from five types of tasks; verbal analogy, arithmetic reasoning, line, vocabulary, antonym and synonym. Each stimulus had response alternatives of two, and the difficulty level of the stimuli was ranged from 0% to 43.9 %. One hundred and twenty male students were tested in modified Crutchfield's conformity apparatus with a group of five at a time. Followings were the main findings. 1. The effect of group pressure was constant regardless of the difficulty of the task. The rank order correlation of the total conformity level and difficulty of the task was .94. The result seemed to be enough to reject Hypothesis I. 2. There seemed to be a indication of the selective effect of group pressure with the type of stimulus items. 3. The number of group pressure seemd to have interaction with the difficulty of the task, that is, when the difficulty of the task were extremely high, the amount of conformity decreases with more than three times of group pressure.