Stimulus

From a group of pictures we were particularly drawn to this one as there is so much to interpret and infer. From this picture alone, we managed to brainstorm many ideas and were able to think of our stimulus

• 
  Group  > multiple people > group/social settings > all connected ?
•  Science related- lots of pre-existing research and articles- easier to formulate and brainstorm ideas

Idea 1: Social experiments on conformity 

Conformity- an individual’s tendency to follow unspoken rules or behaviours in a social setting

Conformity can be influenced by a want to fit in/ peer pressure

Asch conformity experiments 1950s:

-test subjects asked to choose a line that matched the length of 1 of 3 lines

- individually they answered correctly

-when asked in a room (with people who were in on the experiment and told to answer incorrectly) 75% of them went along with what everyone else said 

Power of conformity!

Students said that while they knew the rest of the group was wrong they didn’t want to risk facing ridicule. (Cherry, 2020)

Factors that affect conformity:

• Tends to increase when the task becomes difficult. In a situation where someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, if someone else has an answer (regardless of whether they’re correct or not) you’re more inclined to believe them just because they have an answer and you don’t. 
• When people are able to respond privately, conformity decreases (Mcleod, 2018)

Conformity to ideas and trends is so prevalent in today’s society, it would be interesting to focus, analyse and present it in a creative way that would get people thinking.

Bystander effect- when something is happening but no one’s responding, people tend to take their social cues from the group & assume that a response is not required

In a situation where you see someone in danger and you are the only person there you are more likely to respond and help them however, if someone is in danger in public and no one is reacting to them then you are less likely to help them and just ignore them.

Idea 2: London Underground (Connected routes)

We really liked the idea of us all being interlinked in one way another as this is quite reflective of relationships in society today. Furthermore taking ideas from the London underground as a social setting, there are lots of etiquettes and social cues that we understand from our surroundings. No one tells us to give up our seat for and elderly person or to be quiet because someone is sleeping, this is because we evaluate our settings and act accordingly. Although subtle, this is still a prominent example of conformity.

Moreover the winding pathways of the tubes and routes is a good inspiration for interlinked and intricate movements for our choreography. 

With influence from both of these ideas, we came to our final stimulus which is ‘conformity in society’. We want this to be a thought-provoking piece that encourages people to understand that conformity is a lot more common than we think it is and the importance of being able to show individuality when being faced with peer pressure. As this topic has invoked a lot of interest within our group, we will be exploring further why people conform so easily, and how hard it is to break away from it. 

References:

- Gillespie, I., 2019. Recognising The Tribe & Influencer Culture. [online] The Hemp Temple. Available at: <https://hemptemple.org/blogs/news/recognising-the-tribe-influencer-culture> [Accessed 14 October 2020].

- Cherry, K., 2020. Asch's Seminal Experiments Showed The Power Of Conformity. [online] Verywell Mind. Available at: <https://www.verywellmind.com/the-asch-conformity-experiments-2794996> [Accessed 14 October 2020]. 

-Mcleod, S., 2018. Asch Conformity Experiment | Simply Psychology. [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: <https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html> [Accessed 14 October 2020].