Diagnostics of the students’ level of conformity (results of the methodological experiment)

Abstract

Students are the most socially influenced group due to being poorly protected from various risks, which is used by extremist and terrorist organizations. Such an impact on the younger generation can be ensured by various social-psychological mechanisms, such as suggestion, emotional contagion, imitation, persuasion, etc., which can be used for their involvement in extremist activities. Any influence can be effective under the high conformity; concerning involvement in extremist organizations, such influence can be dangerous for both person and society. The article presents the results of the study of the characteristics that can affect the level of students’ conformity. The authors conducted an experiment based on focus groups and methods for diagnosing suggestibility, emotional intelligence and psychotypes. The dependent variable was the level of conformity. The topic for discussion was attitudes to infidelity as the easiest and acceptable to discuss. All participants were women with a negative attitude to the topic. In the experiment, two groups participated - to influence the initial (negative) attitude with stimulus and special techniques. The groups were homogeneous in terms of emotional intelligence: one group was below average, the second group was above average. The experiment showed that students with an anxious and emotive radical tend to demonstrate a certain degree of conformity. There is no direct correlation between conformity and the level of emotional intelligence, but the authors suggest the influence of empathy on conformity. The results of the research can contribute to new forms of preventive work at universities, including monitoring of those student characteristics that can affect the level of conformity.