Liberals, conservatives, and conformity

Patterns of conforming behavior were compared for Ss empirically contrasted as conservatives, moderates, or liberals on a politically based Thurstone-type scale. In a split-plot factorial analysis-ofvariance design, liberalism-conservatism of the Ss and political identification of the influence sources were employed as between-Ss variables, while task difficulty opera ted as a within·Ss variable. The finding of major interest was that conservatives conformed more than moderates who conformed more than liberals. Further analysis revealed that, in general, conservatives were conformers, liberals were independent, and the conformity of moderates was dependent on the nature of the judgmental task.