What is Conformity Bias?

As an HR or business leader, you know how important it is for your team to align and work toward the same mission. 

According to Gallup, just a 10% increase in employees’ connection with your mission can decrease turnover by more than 8% and increase profitability by more than 4%. 

Any company benefits on some level when employees adopt its norms and values, as this can shape a positive culture and improve employee performance. 

Still, having a team full of people who think and behave the same isn’t truly beneficial. This can lead to conformity bias, which is linked to poor decision-making and stifled creativity.

Learning about conformity bias can help you get your staff on the same page without hindering critical thinking, creativity, and innovation.

Conformity bias is a psychological phenomenon that involves the human tendency to change thoughts and beliefs to fit in with a group. 

In practice, it means that a person looks to a particular group of people for cues about right and wrong behaviours and attitudes and adjusts their own judgement and actions accordingly.

Conformity bias arises from a desire for social acceptance. Humans do not like being rejected and may feel pressure to fit in with a group to gain approval. Additionally, being part of a group can provide a higher level of comfort and safety.

Some also believe that conformity bias requires less cognitive effort than thinking critically and forming opinions and beliefs. It’s normal to prefer taking these types of mental shortcuts or just to be unsure of what to do and choose to look to others for guidance and information.

Conformity bias can manifest in different ways depending on your organisation’s culture and norms. Here are a few real-world scenarios that may occur in the office.

Groupthink occurs when teams prioritise harmony over critical thinking and realistic decision-making. 

For example, a sales manager may suggest using a high-pressure sales tactic to lure customers into making purchases they aren’t ready for, despite research showing customers dislike it. 

Staff may dismiss this negative feedback as minor or conform to the request for fear of criticism.

Peer pressure occurs when members of the same social group influence other members to do things they were initially hesitant or resistant to doing. 

For example, a co-worker may feel pressured to participate in gossip because they know that another employee was socially isolated for refusing to follow workplace norms.

Members of your workforce may be wary about challenging the status quo or suggesting a different course of action, fearing it may disrupt harmony and efficiency in the decision-making process. 

This can be especially true for teams where managers push for compliance above all else.

Conformity bias isn’t a benign phenomenon. In addition to stifling Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion (DOI) efforts, it can significantly negatively impact your workforce and your organisation’s success.

When individuals feel pressured to conform, they may not feel comfortable contributing ideas outside the group’s norm. 

This can hinder employee development and lead to your teams continually recycling the same outdated tactics and methods, leaving your organisation behind the curve.

Often, conformity bias causes individuals to feel pressured to go with the group even when they know that critical information has been ignored or that the decisions being made are unethical or unfair. 

When people believe they must side with others, they support poor decisions to preserve harmony within the group.

Each workforce member needs the autonomy to think and make decisions for themselves. 

It can be demotivating when employees feel that the broader group controls their every move. As a result, employees may feel unsatisfied and disengaged from their work. 

If you notice low morale among your team, consider whether conformity bias and groupthink dominate your company culture.

Sometimes, conformity bias can look a lot like successful culture-building. You certainly want your workforce to band together to uphold common values and norms, as this forms the basis of your company culture. 

However, this can also make it challenging to identify when conformity bias is holding back employees and hindering growth. 

Here’s how to know when this phenomenon may be in your team dynamics.

You can better identify conformity bias in your organisation by recognising it in yourself. Some warning signs include:

• Publicly agreeing with others, even when you disagree internally.
• Hesitating to share your thoughts and opinions in group settings due to a fear of judgement.
• Prioritising group consensus over critical thinking.
• Adopting the behaviours of others around you, even when it isn’t authentic to who you are.
• Hesitating to challenge established norms and practices, even when you see they are counterproductive.
• Ignoring information that contradicts your beliefs to avoid feeling the need to change your thinking.
• Measuring productivity in meetings according to efficiency instead of outcomes.
• Being overly critical of peers who hold opinions different from those of most of the group.

If you see any of these warning signs in your behaviour, consider how to regain your sense of independent thinking.

The first step to recognising conformity bias in team dynamics is to observe your team during meetings and group discussions. 

Take notice of instances where a dominant idea quickly rises to the surface and garners quick agreement from the majority. 

If meeting participants seem ready to agree to methods and ideas that they don’t fully understand or haven’t adequately investigated, they may be experiencing conformity bias. 

Additionally, notice whether team meetings seem to lack dissent. While it is possible for a workforce to be so in sync that everyone can see a clear path to success when ideas are introduced, a lack of dissent more likely indicates that team members are hesitant to express reservations or challenge the dominant opinion.

Similarly, note when certain team members avoid speaking up in meetings. Even when those team members nod with a dominant idea, their silence may signal an internal disagreement they don’t want to express for fear of disrupting harmony or experiencing retribution.

Though conformity bias can hurt your organisation, the good news is that you can take steps to reduce it. Consider the following ways to address conformity bias and restore a more open workplace culture.

Your management and leadership team should encourage all employees to contribute their ideas and opinions even when these opinions challenge established norms. This means exploring an idea or opinion that contradicts their beliefs instead of immediately dismissing it. 

It may also mean finding ways to give teams more autonomy to implement creative solutions without consulting the other members of the group.

Even if staff believe they have important ideas and opinions to contribute, they won’t offer them unless they feel it is safe. Employees want to know they won’t be rejected or isolated for critical thinking. 

To build a culture of psychological safety, treat mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures. Provide feedback on ideas without passing judgement on them. Open communication should also be fostered by encouraging staff to speak with candour and publicly rewarding risk-taking and idea-sharing.

A structured decision-making process reassures employees that decisions are made objectively instead of at the whims of management. 

Any decision-making process must consider the viability of everyone’s ideas and use concrete criteria to evaluate whether those ideas are suitable for a particular goal, task or project.

Conformity bias is seldom noticed without awareness and education. 

Consider offering training programmes or hiring a performance management consultant (PMC) to help staff recognise instances of conformity and other biases and take steps to mitigate their negative effects. 

These programmes should also involve measuring training effectiveness by setting and monitoring metrics.

Addressing conformity bias in your organisation takes a lot of effort, but it also comes with significant rewards.

Employees are free to think outside the box and share creative ideas without pressure to conform to the group’s opinion or uphold established norms.

Your employees likely recognise the importance of collaboration. They’ll enjoy teamwork more when they can express themselves without judgement. 

A lack of pressure to conform also means more autonomy over their work, which can increase ownership and engagement.

Addressing conformity bias can enhance decision-making, as employees no longer need to suppress dissenting opinions to maintain harmony. This may lead your organisation to greater success.

Conformity bias can harm your organisation by stifling creativity and innovation. However, you can overcome this bias by encouraging diverse perspectives, open communication, and structured decision-making.

As you look to help your team develop collaboration skills without sacrificing autonomy and critical thinking, our team at Klara can help. 

Get in touch today to discover our solutions for driving growth and success in your workforce.

Conformity bias can harm your organisation by stifling creativity and innovation. However, you can overcome this bias by encouraging diverse perspectives, open communication, and structured decision-making.

As you look to help your team develop collaboration skills without sacrificing autonomy and critical thinking, our team at Klara can help. 

Get in touch today to discover our solutions for driving growth and success in your workforce.

Conformity bias can harm your organisation by stifling creativity and innovation. However, you can overcome this bias by encouraging diverse perspectives, open communication, and structured decision-making.

As you look to help your team develop collaboration skills without sacrificing autonomy and critical thinking, our team at Klara can help. 

Get in touch today to discover our solutions for driving growth and success in your workforce.

Conformity bias is about changing individual beliefs to fit in, while groupthink is a specific decision-making behaviour in which group harmony overrides critical thinking.