1. Social influence Flashcards
Who proposed that there are three types of conformity?
Kelman 1958
What are the 3 types of conformity that Kelman proposed?
- Internalisation
- Compliance
- Identification
What motivates conformity?
Fitting in
What is social comparison?
Concentration on what others say or do so that they can adjust their own actions to fit in with them (part of compliance)
Why do people engage in social comparison?
When they’re exposed to the views or actions of the majority - to fit in
What effect does Compliance have on a person’s attitude?
It does not result in any change in the person’s underlying attitude, only their views and behaviors they express in public
What is a validation process in Internalisation?
Examining their own beliefs to see if they or the others are right
What effect does Internalisation have on a person’s attitude?
It can lead to acceptance of the group’s POV both publicly and privately
When does Internalisation usually happen?
When the group is generally trustworthy in their views and the individual has tended to go along with them on previous occasions
Why do people conform via identification?
It makes them feel more part of a group by adopting their attitudes and behaviours
Why is Identification like Internalisation AND Compliance?
Internalisation –> the individual accepts the attitudes and behaviours they are adopting as right and true
Compliance –> The purpose of adopting them is to become an accepted member of the group
Give an example of identification
A child may start smoking as they think they are seen as cool
What are the two explanations for conformity?
- Normative social influence
- Informational social influence
What is normative social influence?
Going along with the majority without really accepting their POV
What is normative social influence usually referred to?
Compliance
Humans are a social species - what does this mean in relation to normative social influence?
They have a fundamental need for social companionship and a fear of censure and rejection
What forms the basis for normative social influence?
The fact that humans are a social species - to gain acceptance etc
What is an important condition for normative social influence?
They must be under surveillance by the group
What does normative social influence mean for the the person’s attitude?
- They tend to conform to the majority position in public
- They don’t necessarily internalise this view as it doesn’t carry over into private settings nor does it endure over time
(Nail 1986)
What is informational social influence?
Occurs when an individual accepts info from others as evidence about reality
What forms the basis for informational social influence?
Humans have a need to be accepted, however humans need to feel confident that their perceptions and beliefs are correct - they may rely on the opinions of others for this
When is informational social influence more likely?
If the situation is more ambiguous or where others are experts
In informational social influence how does the person adapt to the group?
The individual does not comply in behaviour alone but also changes their behaviour in line with the group position
What does informational social influence mean for the person’s attitude?
It involves changing both public and private attitudes and behaviors
Because people’s public and private attitudes and behaviours change in informational social influence, what is it a form of?
Internaliastion
What did Asch’s study involve?
- Asch asked student volunteers to take part in a visual discrimination task
- The volunteers didn’t know all but one participants were confederates
- Real aim was to see the effects of social influence
When was Asch’s study?
1956
Who was studied in Asch’s study?
123 male US undergraduates were studied
How was Asch’s study set up?
- Participants were seated around a table and asked to look at three lines of different lengths
- They took turns is calling out which line they thought was the same length as the ‘standard’ line
- The real participant always answered second last
How did Asch manipulate his study to test the effects of social influence?
There was a fairly obvious solution - the confederates were asked to answer wrong on 12 of the 18 trials
What was Asch interested in, in his study?
Whether the ‘real’ participants would stick to what they believed to be right, or cave into the pressure of the majority and go along with its decision
How many critical trials were done in Asch’s study?
12
What was the average rate of conformity in Asch’s study?
33% - participants agreed with the incorrect response given by the other group members
What individual differences did Asch notice with conformity rates?
- 1/4 of participants never conformed to any of the critical trials
- Half conformed on 6+ of the critical trials
- 1 in 20 of the participants conformed on all 12 of the critical trials
How did Asch confirm that the stimulus lines were indeed unambiguous?
He conducted a control condition - it did not have the distraction of confederates giving wrong answers
What did Asch find in the control condition?
Participants made mistakes about 1% of the time
What did the results of the control condition show?
It could not explain the relatively high levels of conformity in the main study
When Asch interviewed his participants after the study, what did he discover?
The majority of the participants who conformed had continued privately to trust their own perceptions - but changed their public behaviours
Why did the participants change their opinions in Asch’s study form what they believed?
They gave incorrect answers to avoid disapproval from the other group members
What were the 3 variables affecting conformity in Asch’s study?
- Group size
- Unanimity of the majority
- Difficulty
Why did Asch use the variables in his study?
To find out which variables had the most significant effects on the level of conformity shown by participants
When did Asch find that conformity was low due to group size?
When the majority consisted of just 1 of 2 confederates
When did Asch find that conformity was high due to group size?
When the majority consisted of 3 confederates
When the majority was 3 confederates, how did this affect the conformity in Asch’s study?
Conformity jumped to 30%
If the group size was increased over 3 confederates, what did Asch find happened to conformity?
Further increase in the size of the majority did not increase the level of conformity substantially
This indicated that the size of the majority was important but only up to a point
What did Campbell and Fairey (1989) suggest about group size, relating to Asch’s study?
They suggested that group size may have a different effect depending on the type of judgement being made & the motivation of the individual
When might a person be likely to be persuaded by the majority?
Where there is no objectively correct answer & the individual is concerned about ‘fitting in’ - the larger the majority the more likely they’re to be swayed
When may a person not be swayed by the majority?
When there is a correct answer & the individual is concerned about being correct
The views of just one or two others will be sufficient
What happened to conformity in Asch’s study when the unanimity of the majority was disturbed?
When ppt was given support of one person with correct answers conformity levels droppped:
From 33% wrong answers to 5.5%
When confederate gave answer different to majority but wrong conformity dropped to 9%
What happened when Asch made his test harder (the lines were more similar)?
Conformity increased - Lucas et al. (2006) investigated this further
What did Lucas et al. (2006) study about conformity show?
Influence of task difficulty is moderated by the self-efficacy of the individual
High self-efficacy patients were more indipendent and vice versa
What did Lucas et al. (2006) conclude about conformity?
That task difficulty (situational differences) and self-efficacy (individual differences) are important in conformity
What are social roles?
The behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status
When was the Stanford Prison Experiment and who was it run by?
Zimbardo’s experiment (Haney et al. 1973)
What was the procedure of the Stanford prison experiment?
Mock prison was set up in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University in California - male student volunteers randomly assigned to either play the role of ‘prisoners’ or ‘guard’
Prisoners unexpectedly arrested at home & on entry to ‘prison’ they went through delousing, given a prison uniform & given an ID no.
Gueards referred to prisoners by ID no.s throughout the study - prisoners allowed certain rights including 3 meals, 3 supervised toilet visits a day & 2 visits a week
Ppts allocated role of guard were given unifroms, clubs, whistles & reflective sunglasses (to avoid eye contact) - Zimbardo took the role of Prison Superintendent
Study was planned to last 2 weeks
How did the guards act over the first few days of the Stanford Prison experiment?
They grew increasingly tyrannical & abusive towards the prisoners
They woke prisoners in the night & forced them to clean the toilets with their bare hands & made them carry out other degrading activities
What evidence is there that the guards in the Stanford Prison experiment conformed to their roles?
Some of them were so enthusiastic in their role thatthey volunteered to do extra hours without pay
What is compliance?
When an individual accepts influence beceause they hope to achievea favourable reaction from those around them
An attitude or behaviour adopted not because of its content, but becuase of the rewards or approval associated with its adoption
What is conformity?
A form of SI that results from exposure to the majority position & leads to compliance with that position
It’s the tendency for people to adopt the behaviour, attitudes & values of other members of a reference group
What is identification?
A form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude/behaviour as they want to be associated with a particular person or group
What is informational social influence
Is a form of influence - is the result of a desire to be right
Looking to other as a way of gaining evidence about reality
What is internalisation?
Occurs when an individual accepts influence because the content of the attitudeor behaviour proposed is consitent with their own value system
What is normative social influence?
A form of influence whereby an individual conforms with the expectations of the majority in order to gain approval or to avoid social dissaproval
What is obedience to authority?
Refers to a type of social influence whereby someone acts in response to a direct order from a figure with percieved authority
Also the implication that the person receiving the order is made to respond in a way that they would not otherwise have done without the order
Who conducted the study on Informative Social Influence?
Asch and Sherif
What was the process of Sherif’s study on informational social influence?
- Told ppts he was study autokinetic effect (still things seeming to move)
- Was actually looking at SI
- Ppts told light would move & should guess how far, placed in a dark room with a light - it never moved
- They stated their estimates in groups of 3 - he found third always went between first 2
- Demonstrated ISI for the first time in a lab
What was Asch’s 1956 study designed to show?
The people do not make thier own decisions
Wanted to demonstrate “experts” were fallible - expanding on Sherif’s study
How did Asch’s study influence further research into SI?
His study inspired all later SI research - he was even a lecturer at Zimbardo and Milgram’s uni
What are the variations of Asch’s 1956 study?
- Group size
- Unanimity of the majority
- Difficulty of the task
How did group size affect conformity in Asch’s study?
3-6 cofederates was the most persuasive majority
How did unanimity of the majority affect conformity in Asch’s study?
Conformity fell to 5.5% with one dissenter
How did difficulty of the task affect conformity on Asch’s study?
- More difficult = more conformity
- Recent research shows this correlation is moderated by self-efficacy. S-E is an important extraneous variable in all SI research
What are the evaluations of types & explanations of conformity?
- Difficult to distinguish between compliance & internalisation
- Research support for normative influence
- Research support for informational influence
- Normative influence may not be detected
- Informational influence is moderated by type of task
What are the evaluations for variables affecting conformity (Asch)?
- Asch’s research may be a child of its time
- Problems with determining the effect of group size
- Independent behaviour rather than conformity
- Unconvincing confederates?
- Cultural differences in conformity
What was Zimbardo’s 1973 study looking at?
Social role conformity
What was Zimbardo attempting to demonstrate in his 1973 study?
- Wanted to show that society has mutually-agreed roles that popele just follow without thinking
- He thought culturally established role -appropriate behvaiour would be seen in any group of ppl - given appropriate environment
How did Zimbardo predict that people would conform in his study?
He predicted it would happen due to a new theoretical idea of his:
Deindividuation, leading to disinhibition
What was the set up of Zimbardo’s Prizon Experiment (SPE)?
- 24 male subjects
- Volunteer sample
- Split into prisoners/guards
- Prisoners arrested without warning
- Guards told to “maintian order”
- Conclusion - conformity to social roles very powerful
What were some problems with Zimbardo’s prison experiment?
- Zimbardo played a part himself - investigator effects?
- Study planned for 2 weeks, stopped after 6 days (only when outsider threatened to call police)
- Symptoms of PTSD, anxiety disorders & depression among prisoners
Who conducted the BBC prison study?
Reicher & Haslam, 2006
What was the procedure of the BBC prison study?
Randomly assigned men to the role of guard or prisoner & examined their behaviour in a specially created ‘prison’
15 male ppts divided into 5 groups of 3 people - based on personaloty variables
One of each 3 was a guard
What were the findings of the BBC prison study?
Key finding: ppts did not conform automatically to their assigned role as happened in SPE
Over course of study, prisoners increasingly identifiedas a group to challange authority of the guards
The guards failed to identify with their role, made them reluctant to impost their authority on the prisoners
Created a shift of power& collapse of the prioser-guard system
Define obedience
Form of SI whic individual follows a direct order
Person giving order is usually an authority figure who has power to punish when ppl don’t obey
Define conformity
Form of SI in which an individual responds to percieved group pressure
When do obedience vs. conformity tend to occur?
Obedience occurs in a social hierarchy
Conformity occurs between people of equal status
How do obedient and conformity behaviours differ?
Obedient behaviours often different from the behaviour of the authority figure
In conformity, the conformist behaviour is the same as that of the social group
Is obedience vs. conformity implicit or explicit?
Obedience - occurs in response to an explicit order
Conformity - occurs in response to implicit presure
With obedience vs. conformity do people tend to embrace or deny the influence?
Obedience - people often embrace it as the reasons why they acted as they did
Conformity - people often deny it as an influence on their behaviour
What was Milgran interested in when conducting his 1963 study?
The ‘German question’
Some German leaders claimed they were following orders & didn’t understand their actions
In the media, a hypothesis named after a headline that “Germans are Evil” gained global popularity
What inspired Milgran to study the German question?
In the media, hypothesis named after a headline that “Germans are evil” gained popularity
Who was Milgram?
Jewish researcher whose family fled Germany - was upset at the rise of prejudice against Germans in the USA
He wanted to investigate on their behalf
What did Milgram beleive about German soldiers and why?
He beleived they weren’t evil - that they were following orders
He argued anyone under the same circumstances could easily be persuaded to commit immoral & harmful acts
Define autonomous state
Your actions are under your own control
Define: agentic state
You’ve deffered resposibility of your actions to someone else
Define agentic shift
The point at which you lose sense of responsibility
Define legitimacy of authority
The features/qualities of the person giving orders that makes us obey them
What was the procedure of Milgram’s (1963) study?
- 40 ppts told study of how punishment affects learning
- 2 confederates - experimenter & 47 y/o man that they would give the shock to
- Two ppts drew lots to see who would be teacher & learner - was rigged so confederate was learner
- Teacher had to give shocks every time he got one wrong - could not see learner
- Shocks starting at 15V, cont. up to 450V in 15V increments
- In voice feedback learner mainly gave wrong answers & recieved fake shocks
- At 315V he stopped responding - teacher would be told it was ‘essential’ to continue
When was Milgram’s shock study?
1963
What were the findings of Milgram’s (1963) study?
65% of ppts administered the max shock of 450V
All ppts went to 300V - only 5 stopped there
What were the 3 vatiations used in Milgram’s (1963) study?
- Proximity
- Location
- Uniform
How did proximity affect obedience in Milgrma’s (1963) study?
- Teacher & learner in same room obedience fell to 40%
- When req. to force “learner” to touch plate; 30%
- When experimenter was absent, only 21% went up to max voltage with some even lying
How did location affect obedience in Milgrma’s (1963) study?
Study originally took place at Yale university
When moved to an old office block, rates fell to 40% max voltage
Where did Milgram’s original study on obedience take place and hwo did it affect obedience?
Milgram used Yale - prestigious
Some ppts said location agve them confidence in staff
Many said if study was elsewhere, they would
How did location affect obedience in Milgram’s (1963) study?
Uniform symbolises power & authority
Levels of conformity based on each uniform:
Police - 72%
Business - 48%
Tramp - 52%
What does agentic state mean?
Means being an agent of someone else’s will
Milgram got the idea for his research from Eichmann’s trial
What is the opposite to agentic state?
Autonomous state
How were ppts under the agentic state in Milgram’s study?
Many of his ppts wanted to quit - most didn’t, but they still felt bad
What are binding factors?
Are methods used to minimise moral strain
e.g. shifting responsibility or denying harm
What is legitimacy of authority?
We hand over responsibility for our actions to powerful people
Police/courts/government have legitimate authority
Also means they can punish people
If they go too far, this can become destructive
What was the study conducted for legitimacy of authority?
Aircraft investigation - Tarnow, 2000
19 of 37 studied aircraft crashes featured instances of subordinate staff failing to question the captain before an accident
They usually say “I assumed he knew what he was doing - he’s the captain”
What are the two things that can cuase social resistance?
- Social support
- Locus of control
What is social support?
Believing peers agree with you (situation)
What is locus of control?
Personality traits related to confidence (dispositional)
What is an internal Locus Of Control?
Belief in your own agency - resposible for your own fate
What is an external Locus Of Control?
Belief in external control - not responsible for your fate
How does an internal LOC affect conformity?
Likely to resist normative SI to conform as they don’t believe other’s views matter
- Explains why education is inversely correlated with conformity
- Writing secret answers lowered conformity in Asch
How does an internal LOC affect obedience?
Likely to resists obedience more often - they tend to thinkfor themselvese more often & look to authority less often
- Agentic shift more difficult to achieve
- May explain the 35% in Milgram (1963)
How does an external LOC affect obedience?
Obey more often - looking for external info about how to act & believe others have control over them
- Agentic shift happens more easily
- May make up a large number of the 65% in Milgram (1963)
How does an external LOC affect conformity?
Likely to conform more often as they believe external people/factors are important - less liekly to trust their own convictions
- Authoritarian upbringing is likely to link this to conformity
- Explains findings of Elms & Milgran (1966)
Which two studies were there social support variations in
Both Asch’s (1956) study and Milgram’s (1963)
What happened in Asch’s study when the ppt had social support?
When one of the confederates disagreed with the others, critical trial conformity fell
Compliance fell from around 1/3 to 5.5%
What happened in Milgram’s study when the ppt had social support?
When there was a dissenter present - obedience fell from 65% to 10% going to 450V
What did the study conducted by Avtgis (1998) show about LOC?
There is a significant positive correlation between LOC & social influence
What did Avtgis’ (1998) study show how each LOC type behaves?
External - easily persuaded/influenced; often conform
Internal - less likely to conform/obey
