Group Conformity

Diagnosis

Can you think of a recent example in which you chose group conformity and later wished you had made a different decision? Explain.
Has there been a situation within your health profession program where you were faced with a decision to align your attitudes and behaviors with the group norms and you had to decide whether to “rock the boat?”
Will issues with group conformity be present in your future health profession career? How so?

After reading about the Solomon Asch experiment, did you think to yourself, “I would not have gone along with the other participants?” Would you have worried about being considered peculiar or an outsider? The power of group conformity can cause individuals to make choices that seem peculiar. Here are three quotes from nursing students that involve this concept.

“I would definitely say something if I saw poor practice but it is feeling secure with the nursing staff that makes a world of difference whether or not you speak up.”

“I’ve seen patients lying in wet beds for hours. But I have never questioned it… I’m not qualified, so I don’t feel I could say anything… and I could not risk getting the nurses upset with me.”

“I have been in situations where patient safety was compromised, but who am I to criticize. I don’t say anything because I don’t want to rock the boat. I want to fit in here and I don’t want people to hate me.”

The commonality of these quotes by nursing students is that they want to want to align their attitudes and behaviors with the group norms – they don’t want to rock the boat. If the circumstances were different would their decisions differ? For example, what if they were already in their career as a nurse and observed these types of behaviors? Would their responses be different? Would they speak out immediately? The power of group conformity is deceptively strong. One way to address group conformity is to create clinical environments where students feel safe to ask questions and to question practice even of their superiors.