Conformity of responses among graduate students in an online environment

Highlights

• We examined conformity to curriculum-based tasks in an online environment.

• Students copy incorrect responses reported by their peers in an online classroom.

• Students provide several reasons for conforming to incorrect information.

• Students are likely to conform when students meet in an online space just as they do face-to-face.

Abstract

Despite 60 years of social–psychological research demonstrating that individuals are likely to conform to inaccurate information presented by group members, this phenomenon of conformity has yet to be studied in an online environment. A total of 53 graduate students visited a virtual classroom. Each one was able to see the names of three other students (confederates), while responding to 10 multiple choice questions about research. Participants who saw incorrect responses given by confederates before responding, obtained fewer correct responses (M = 6.78, SD = 1.82) than did participants who saw no responses from confederates (M = 8.08, SD = 1.09), F(1,51) = 9.78, p < 0.01, d = 0.33. Thus, this study supports the need for consideration of conformity behaviors within online learning activities.

Introduction

Conformity to the group, or changing one's responses to be consistent with group members' responses, was documented in Asch's seminal studies (Asch, 1952, Asch, 1955, Asch, 1956, Asch, 1958) and has been replicated internationally over the last 60 years (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004). It has received little attention, however, in the online higher education environment. Learning in front of an audience of peers requires social risk taking in the form of asking questions that may reveal lack of understanding, providing answers that may be incorrect, and suggesting new ideas that may not be agreed upon (Ilias, Razak, Yunus & Razak, 2013). Concern about this type of evaluation from others is likely to result in subordination to the group (Bond & Smith, 1996). In particular, when one group member holds an opinion that is contrary to those of the remainder of the group, there may be pressure for the individual to conform (Forsyth & Burnett, 2010). This experience may cause distress to the individual as well as mislead learning. To date, this phenomenon has received widespread attention in business (Chapman, 2006), aviation (Hermann & Rammal, 2010), space exploration (Esser & Linoerfer, 1989), military (Badie, 2010), law (Breger, 2010), and most recently medical education (Beran, Kaba, Caird & McLaughlin, 2014). It would seem reasonable to conclude that conformity would additionally exert influence within online learning events, particularly given the increased emphasis placed on the social aspects of the online learning environment (e.g., Garrison and Arbaugh, 2007, McKenna et al., 2002). The present study examines the extent to which group consensus is a possible barrier to effective communication and learning that takes place online by investigating the extent to which graduate students conform to their peers when performing an online curriculum-based task. The following sections provide a review of what is known about the group conformity effect and discuss its relevance to online learning environments.