Measuring the Effects of Gender on Online Social Conformity

Social conformity occurs when an individual changes their behaviour in line with the majority’s expectations. Although social conformity has been investigated in small group settings, the effect of gender – of both the individual and the majority/minority – is not well understood in online settings. Here we systematically investigate the impact of groups’ gender composition on social conformity in online settings. We use an online quiz in which participants submit their answers and confidence scores, both prior to and following the presentation of peer answers that are dynamically fabricated. Our results show an overall conformity rate of 39%, and a significant effect of gender that manifests in a number of ways: gender composition of the majority, the perceived nature of the question, participant gender, visual cues of the system, and final answer correctness. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of our findings in designing online group settings, accounting for the effects of gender on conformity.