Consumer Behavior And Culture by Marieke de Mooij

Author:Marieke de Mooij
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781412979900
Publisher: Sage

CONFORMITY

* * *

In collectivistic cultures, people conform more to others, both of in-groups and of out-groups, than they do in individualistic cultures. A famous experiment by Asch131 measured the degree of conformity in the United States by showing participants a stimulus line and a set of three lines, in which one line was the same length as the stimulus line. The participants had to say which of the three lines was similar to the stimulus line. All but one participant were told to give the same wrong answer. Individuals who had to judge in a group where the other participants all gave the same wrong answer also gave the wrong answer, while this was not the case in groups where no such pressure took place. Hofstede132 reports cross-analysis of Asch-like studies in the United States and 36 studies in 16 other countries that point at greater conformity in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures. Young people conform more to their peers. For young girls in collectivistic and high power distance cultures, the most powerful influences on beauty and body image are their girlfriends.133 Singh reports that young people in India are more influenced by their peers than by family members. Conformance to peers may be more important than family influence.134

Branded luxury products like Vuitton purses fulfill the need to conform. In Japan, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men own a Vuitton product. Teenaged girls want Vuitton because “Everyone has it.”135 Vuitton’s sales have risen by double digits every year since 1990. Japanese sociologists state that by owning a Vuitton purse, anonymous young women can feel kinship with other Vuitton owners and not feel the stigma of being excluded.136 The Japanese term is wa, meaning to be similar to others, look the same as others.

In China, friendship circles or people living in the same area (e.g., apartment building) often consume similar product categories, select the same brands within a category, and purchase them in the same department store.

The need for conformity is also related to low masculinity. Feminine cultures can be characterized by a need for leveling; they are also said to be “jealous” societies. Envy can be a motive to buy or not buy products or brands. In 2001, in Korea, a feminine culture, 70% said buying imported cars would lead to greater “social disparity,” and nearly half avoided imports for fear of “dirty looks” from fellow Koreans.137

The typical individualistic definition of conformity is “yielding to group pressure,” but in collectivistic cultures conformity is not a matter of “yielding” to pressure. Group conformity is an automatic process caused by the need for social harmony. Whereas conformity, obedience, and compliance are viewed negatively in American culture, they generally are positively valued behavior in collectivistic cultures. The American bias can be recognized when conformity-related values are discussed, like using the phrase “yielding to group pressure” or “sacrificing the self for the common goal” as done by Oyserman et al.138 and Lee.139

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.