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If I want you to like me, should I be like you or unlike you? The effect of prior positive interaction with the group on conformity and distinctiveness in consumer decision making

Research query of the take a look at become whether or not an individual will imitate to or look for specialty from others in a specific situation of intake is depending at the nonexistence or prevalence of one’s previous fantastic collaboration with the institution. It became additionally counseled that this end result will take place in a public situation; this is, when the choice of a person is observable to the other individuals of the group.

Introduction and methodology

The research was conducted to test statistically that what is the effect of other members of the group on choice of an individual. Whether a person will go for the same type of thing which the other people of the group have in majority or they want to be different from the whole group. The researchers found the literature on both situations. The early literature was on the favor of going with the other group members but the latest literature revealed that mostly people like to go against the group members to be distinctive from the other members. To solve this contradictive literature, the researchers were interested in conducting the research on this topic. They use conformity and its objectives as the theoretical bases for this research. According to the theory, there are three basic objectives of conformity theory which are related to social influences on an individual. One is informational influence. It is the situation in which individual is not known about the right action to do and follow the group members. Second is normative influence. It is the situation in which individual takes decision under the influence of norms of the group or society. Third objective is referent informational influence. It is the situation in which people divide other individuals and themselves in different groups according to the similarities among them and others. This concept is called self-categorization theory.

Optimal distinctiveness theory was also used as theoretical foundation of the study. According to which to be the acceptable part of the group, similarities are the key whereas for being unique, differences are the main point of focus.

Results

Results of the study revealed that visibility manipulation has a significant effect, which means that the respondents of the study, in public situation were more possibly expected to know the brands of MP3 they choose as compared to the respondents in private situation.

As expected, the results of investigation yielded bolster for the association effect of earlier high-quality cooperation with the gathering and perceivability of 1’s usage desire to others on similarity and uniqueness. In particular, it became found that at the factor while people depended on that their utilization decisions might be significant to others, but they did not have a history of advantageous associations with the collection, they had been more liable to coordinate their selections with the tendencies of different collect people. Apparently, on this circumstance, humans have been stimulated to get endorsement, or if nothing else to stay away from dismissal, by means of the collection they have been going to meet and contemplated that the most ideal method to coexist with others changed into to oblige them.

Steady with goals, the example of outcomes changed into grew to become around after individuals encountered a advantageous collaboration with the collection. For this case, human beings will in all likelihood determine a selection that enabled them to emerge inside the collecting. The approach of reasoning for this behavior supplied within the present research turned into that even a short connection with already unacquainted individuals changed into adequate to persuade humans to sense mentioned and mentioned and evoked in them the need to introduce oneself out of a terrific manner.

It is likewise intriguing to take note of that amid the dialog, the dominant part of people not just felt that others responded decidedly to them yet additionally related to their gatherings to a moderately high degree. In part, this may be a result of the way that all members originated from a similar understudy populace and might have had a considerable measure in like manner. In the meantime, these perceptions are reliable with the thought proposed in social mental research that, every other thing being equivalent, people expect charming as opposed to disagreeable collaborations with other individuals and are brisk in shaping connections to their gatherings. It gives the idea that in the present examination, most people in fact drew closer and were drawn nearer by others in the tolerant way and that this constructive experience urged them to make a particular picture of the self-inside the gathering.

In the private context, no help was found for the connection between earlier positive collaboration with the gathering and either congruity or uniqueness. These discoveries were reliable with desires and with past research that demonstrated that people had a tendency to fit in with and look for uniqueness from others just when they trusted that others knew about their conduct.

Implications

In conclusion of this study, the results were based on the positive interaction of the group members and support that the choice of the person is influenced by the conformity and distinctiveness according to the group from which she/he belongs to but it was also found that people in the absence of the group have the same choice influences. In the broader level, it means that as person or a member of this society, everyone is divided in categories according to the similarities and differences. Everyone wants to be accepted in his or her group, so they do according to the norms of the specific group. Ours choices are influenced by the members of the group from which we belong.

Critique

In this study, the group interaction was positive which is not possible in this world because everyone is a unique individual and has unique way of thinking and perceiving things. This study must be conducted on both types of interactional groups. I think the experimental group design was not a suitable one for this type of studies as we cannot develop conflicts within a desired group to conduct experiment with good reliable results. For such studies, quasi experimental design is more appropriate with the naturally formed groups with both positive and negative interactions present. Experimental have high internal reliability but I think in this study we need high external reliability. A control group could be added in this study with a quasi-experimental design to develop the internal reliability as well.

This study could be a cultural comparison type study too as every culture has its norms and specifications which influence people in different ways. Socioeconomic status could also be a predictor of influences on the choice of a person in reference of his or her group members’ choice or acceptance level.

If I were the researcher of this study, I would be interested in finding the reason of being distinctive from the other group members because when a person deviate from a specific group there must be a reason behind it. For instance, if the reason is socioeconomic status, the deviation from one group’s norms and acceptance level may be because of the desire to enter another group in the society or may be because of the higher acceptance level in other group rather than the present one.

I really enjoyed the research study. In conclusion of the critique, I appreciate the work as it is positive step in research on this topic and there is a lot uncovered available for us to explore as group acceptance is the most influential factor of the society.

Reference

Papyrina, V. (2012). If I want you to like me, should I be like you or unlike you? The effect of prior positive interaction with the group on conformity and distinctiveness in consumer decision making. Journal Of Consumer Behaviour11(6), 467-476. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cb.1396

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