A Level Psychology tuition with Ángel

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I was watching a film on Netflix the other day, Mexico 86, and it had a great example of an A Level Psychology concept in a real-life context ⚽🎬

The film includes the moment when FIFA voting was taking place to decide where to hold the 1986 World Cup, with Mexico and the USA competing to host. It looked like the USA was going to win the votes, but the Mexican representative managed to sway the votes in Mexico’s favour by repositioning the voters, so that all those in favour of Mexico voted first… and the ones after followed suit!

That’s where conformity bias comes in.

Conformity bias is the tendency for people to adjust their opinions, judgments, or decisions to match the majority view or dominant group, even if they privately disagree. It happens because of social pressure or because we assume the group probably knows better than us.

In A Level Psychology, this links closely to:

Normative social influence (going along with the group to be liked 👍)
Informational social influence (assuming the group is correct 🧠)
In Mexico 86, the FIFA voting room becomes a really clear example of this. Delegates aren’t making decisions in isolation: they’re influenced by alliances, status, and the growing sense of a “winning side” in the room. Even when individuals have doubts, the momentum of the group can pull decisions toward agreement, creating what looks like a rational collective choice, but is actually shaped by social pressure.

It’s a good reminder that conformity bias isn’t just something from lab studies like Asch (although it’s important to know that one for the exam!): it shows up in real-world decision-making.