chap 8: conformity

Question 1

The authors of your text describe a series of horrible telephone hoaxes that were done a few years ago in which a caller falsely identified himself as a police officer and had restaurant managers perform unnecessary strip searches and other degrading acts on subordinates. The fact that the managers he called actually did what he instructed them to do illustrates that people very readily

a. give up personal freedoms in this post 9/11 world.
b. follow their stereotypes.
c. will obey someone they think is in authority.
d. seek opportunities to exploit those with less power.

Answer 1

c

Question 2

According to your text, our construals of the concept “conformity” are shaped by

a. personality differences.
b. social psychologists.
c. our cultural self-image.
d. situational pressures.

Answer 2

c

Question 3

Bob is from Michigan. He’s familiar with cultural norms that emphasize

a. conformity.
b. cooperation.
c. individuality.
d. obedience to authority.

Answer 3

c

Question 4

When “Freedom Riders” conformed with their group of fellow civil rights activists, they conformed by behaving ________, but when soldiers in the Vietnamese village of My Lai conformed, they behaved ________, illustrating that conformity itself it not always simply good or bad.

a. violently; nonviolently
b. emotionally; logically
c. peacefully; violently
d. as individuals; as a group

Answer 4

c

Question 5

The authors of your text suggest that there are two major motivations for people to conform:

a. not knowing what to do in a confusing situation and wishing to avoid ridicule and rejection.
b. not knowing what to do in a confusing situation and seeking clear direction from an authority figure.
c. wishing to avoid ridicule and rejection and hoping to attain power.
d. not knowing what to do in a confusing situation and hoping to attain power.

Answer 5

a

Question 6

It’s Libby’s first day in college. When she approaches the professor to have an “add” form signed, she listens to other students to see if they address the professor as “Professor,” “Dr.,” “Mrs.,” or by her first name, and then she does the same. This is an example of

a. situational uncertainty.
b. informational social influence.
c. normative social influence.
d. situational interdependence.

Answer 6

b

Question 7

Khadija has conformed to others’ behaviors or attitudes because she believes that their interpretations of an ambiguous situation are more accurate than hers. ________ has occurred.

a. Educated conformity
b. Normative social influence
c. Unintended social influence
d. Informational social influence

Answer 7

d

Question 8

You are a little confused about how to address your new boss. Even though you are told that your new supervisor’s name is Charlie Rose, you have noticed that everyone at work calls him “Boss.” You, too, decide to start calling your supervisor “Boss.” This decision is a product of

a. compliance with authority.
b. normative social influence.
c. informational social influence.
d. private acceptance.

Answer 8

c

Question 9

Reynald is participating in a research study where he is watching a dot of light in a dark room. In time it appears to move. Later, he finds out that it was really stationary. This phenomenon is

a. proof that people can start seeing things if left alone for too long.
b. known as the autokinetic effect.
c. also a test for schizophrenia.
d. widely used to make people conform.

Answer 9

b

Question 10

In which of the following cases is conformity due to information social influence LEAST likely to occur?

a. A new camper arrives at camp and needs to figure out procedures in the cafeteria.
b. A person on the street is stumbling and it is not clear if he is hurt or drunk.
c. A repairman falls off a ladder and breaks his leg while working in the hospital.
d. An airplane hits major turbulence and it is a few minutes until the captain gets on the speaker to reassure the passengers.

Answer 10

c

Question 11

Which of the following phenomena is most likely to result in private acceptance of an idea or behavior?

a. normative social influence
b. contagion
c. informational social influence
d. propaganda

Answer 11

c

Question 12

All of the following are examples of informational social influence EXCEPT:

a. You are running a race, and you wait to check which of two roads the other runners follow.
b. You’ve just started work at a new job, and a fire alarm goes off. You watch your coworkers to see what to do.
c. You ask your advisor which classes you should take next semester.
d. You decide to lose weight, because the people you see on the covers of popular magazines are thinner than you are and you want people to like you more.

Answer 12

d

Question 13

In the past ten years, the popular American holiday, Halloween, was “imported” to France by retailers hoping to increase revenues. Essentially, the French learned the traditions such as trick-or-treating and wearing costumes from Americans. This is an example of ________ on an international scale.

a. normative social influence
b. the autokinetic effect
c. informational social influence
d. injunctive norms

Answer 13

c

Question 14

Why would Muzafer Sherif, a social psychologist, choose the autokinetic effect (a perceptual illusion) to study social conformity? He wanted

a. to construct a situation that was ambiguous.
b. participants to feel pressure to obey his instructions.
c. to use a dark room to foster a sense of cohesion in the group.
d. to study the influence of perceptions on social behavior.

Answer 14

a

Question 15

When participants were first placed in a dark room alone and asked to estimate the apparent movement of a point of light, individuals were consistent in their own estimates, and these estimates differed greatly from participant to participant. When participants made the same estimates in a group setting, their estimates converged. According to Muzafer Sherif (1936), why did this happen? Conformity occurs when people

a. feel anonymous in a group.
b. feel uncomfortable and insecure.
c. can use others’ behaviors as cues for what’s right.
d. can use anonymity to control others.

Answer 15

c

Question 16

Even though Gerald isn’t religious, when he attends church on Christmas with his family, he donates money when ushers pass around a collection basket because everyone else puts something in. It is likely that Gerald is

a. experiencing a high level of cognitive dissonance.
b. privately accepting religion.
c. being persuaded via the peripheral route.
d. publicly complying.

Answer 16

d

Question 17

You have been hired to help design a campaign to get people to conserve energy. Based on the research by Nolan and colleagues (2008), what is the most effective way to convince people to conserve?

a. emphasize the money they would save
b. explain the benefits to society
c. explain that they are protecting the environment
d. tell them that their neighbors are doing it

Answer 17

d

Question 18

Based on the studies conducted by Nolan and colleagues (2008) and Goldstein and colleagues (2008), which approach seems to be most effective at motivating people to behave in ways that are more environmentally friendly?

a. operant conditioning
b. informational social influence
c. cognitive dissonance
d. guilt and fear appeals

Answer 18

b

Question 19

When it is important to provide a correct answer and the stakes are high, people are more likely to

a. rely on informational social influence.
b. use their independent judgment.
c. think quietly to themselves, and not seek other peoples’ opinions.
d. want to decide alone.

Answer 19

a

Question 20

Informational social influence is most likely to play a significant role in which of the following situations?

a. members of a jury trying to reach a verdict in a murder trial
b. family members sitting around the living room trying to guess answers to a TV game show
c. fraternity members encouraging each other to “chug-a-lug”
d. two art students viewing a museum exhibit and discussing their preferences for different works

Answer 20

a

Question 21

Not all members of the radio audience of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast panicked immediately. Indeed, some didn’t panic until they looked out of the window and saw empty streets; others didn’t panic until they saw streets full of traffic. It was after checking out the situation that these citizens decided that the Martians had indeed invaded Earth. This example illustrates that contagion

a. can result when cultural norms reinforce people’s most likely responses.
b. is especially likely when people are motivated to make independent decisions.
c. can result when people look to others for the interpretation of ambiguous situations.
d. occurs primarily because humans are by nature irrational creatures.

Answer 21

c

Question 22

In a situation such as the War of the Worlds broadcast, where the situation is highly ambiguous, once people begin to believe they know what is happening, they tend to

a. relax.
b. reinterpret potentially disconfirming evidence in line with their definition of the situation.
c. stop interacting with each other, as information is no longer needed.
d. become motivated to achieve acceptance by others.

Answer 22

b

Question 23

Le Bon (1895) documented that emotions and behaviors can spread rapidly through a crowd, an effect known as

a. mass psychogenic illness.
b. contagion.
c. persuasion.
d. normative social influence.

Answer 23

b

Question 24

The major downside risk of informational social influence is that the more ________ the situation is, the more we rely on others who are no more likely to be knowledgeable or accurate than we ourselves are, leading us each to adopt others’ mistakes and misinterpretations.

a. clearly defined
b. superficial
c. familiar
d. ambiguous

Answer 24

d

Question 25

When Steven goes to his fraternity meeting, all of the following factors will increase the impact of informational social influence on him EXCEPT the

a. ambiguity of the situation.
b. importance of the group.
c. extent to which a situation is a crisis.
d. expertise of others.

Answer 25

b

Question 26

Many U.S. troops present at My Lai later reported that they were frightened and confused about whether people in the villages were really enemy soldiers. Others reported that they didn’t know whether the rifle-fire they heard was from enemy guns or from the guns of fellow troops. Still, frightened and bewildered, many of them began setting fire to huts and shooting old men, women, and children. This tragic example illustrates that informational influence is most likely to occur when

a. authorities model the appropriate behavior.
b. situations are interpreted as a crisis.
c. we look to experts for cues.
d. charismatic leaders provide a new definition of reality.

Answer 26

b

Question 27

Priscilla is on her way to a concert and has gotten lost. Which of the following people, based on information from your text about informational social influence, would she be most likely to ask for directions?

a. a tourist from out of town
b. the largest group of people she can find
c. a police officer
d. a homeless person

Answer 27

c

Question 28

Informational social influence is to ________ as normative social influence is to ________.

a. public compliance; private acceptance
b. private acceptance; public compliance
c. conversion; private acceptance
d. conformity; conversion

Answer 28

b

Question 29

The concept of social norms refers to

a. the most common beliefs, values, or behavior in a group of people.
b. implicit or explicit rules a group has for acceptable beliefs, values, or behavior.
c. social sanctions a group provides in response to deviant behavior.
d. social practices designed to promote cooperation in a group.

Answer 29

b

Question 30

Which of the following is an example of a social norm in mainstream U.S. culture?

a. bowing to your parents as a greeting
b. using your turn signal to indicate which direction you will be turning
c. reading a book
d. asking a homeless person for help finding an address

Answer 30

b

Question 31

When people conform in attitudes or behaviors in order to be accepted and liked by others, social psychologists say that ________ has occurred.

a. contagion
b. informational social influence
c. social approval
d. normative social influence

Answer 31

d

Question 32

Imagine that you are attending a new high school and would like to make friends. On the first day of school, you observe that all of the students in your homeroom are crumpling paper into balls and throwing them on the floor. You begin to do the same. You have conformed to the group’s behavior due to

a. informational social influence.
b. propaganda.
c. normative social influence.
d. obedience to authority.

Answer 32

c

Question 33

Deviant behavior is usually met with rejection. For example, in Japan, deviants in school tend to be shunned and harassed by their entire class or school. Such treatment is particularly psychologically damaging in Japan because the culture

a. demands perfection.
b. emphasizes cohesion and group harmony.
c. frowns upon conformity.
d. emphasizes good grades.

Answer 33

b

Question 34

Itsuki, a Japanese teenager, has withdrawn from all social interaction. He is referred to as a hikikomori. The most likely reason for his withdrawal is as a result of

a. academic failure.
b. being from a dishonored family.
c. being an illegitimate child.
d. being bullied severely.

Answer 34

d

Question 35

Leslie keeps getting harassing, put-down messages on her phone and Facebook page from a group of kids at her school. Leslie is being

a. ostracized.
b. socially normed.
c. cyberbullied.
d. e-dissed.

Answer 35

c

Question 36

Pierre joins the other concertgoers in giving the symphony a standing ovation, even though he thought the performance was merely adequate. The next morning, Pierre confides to his girlfriend that the performance was “satisfactory, but not overwhelming.” In joining the standing ovation, Pierre displayed what kind of conformity?

a. private acceptance
b. mindless conformity
c. public compliance
d. social deviance

Answer 36

c

Question 37

Solomon Asch (1951, 1956) embarked on a series of studies in which participants were asked to estimate the lengths of lines that clearly differed in length. Asch originally undertook these experiments to

a. systematically replicate the earlier “autokinetic effect” studies of Muzafer Sherif, using different ambiguous stimuli.
b. demonstrate that in ambiguous situations, people would rather be “liked” than “right.”
c. show that in unambiguous situations, people will behave in reasonable, rational ways.
d. challenge the prevailing view that humans are inherently motivated to be accurate in their perceptions.

Answer 37

c

Question 38

In a series of experiments, why did Solomon Asch (1951, 1956) ask participants to judge the lengths of lines that were clearly different from one another? Asch

a. wanted to study conformity in ambiguous situations.
b. believed that people would conform in their judgments.
c. wanted to study conformity in unambiguous situations.
d. believed that Muzafer Sherif’s experiments were fatally flawed.

Answer 38

c

Question 39

In a series of studies by Solomon Asch (1951, 1956), when participants judged the lengths of lines alone rather than in a group of confederates, their judgments were accurate about 99 percent of the time. Still, when other participants made judgments in a group of people who gave the wrong answers, they reported incorrect judgments. These findings suggest that

a. experts exert informational social influence in ambiguous situations.
b. normative social influence was at work.
c. informational social influence happens, even in unambiguous situations.
d. people will distort reality to avoid punishment or social censure.

Answer 39

b

Question 40

In a variation of his standard experiment, Solomon Asch (1957) found that when participants could write their responses on a piece of paper, conformity dropped dramatically. This finding indicates that participants exhibited ________, not ________, during the standard experiment.

a. public compliance; private acceptance
b. private acceptance; public compliance
c. logical reasoning; mindless conformity
d. mindless conformity; logical reasoning

Answer 40

a

Question 41

Amanda is assigned to a group to take a quiz (which actually doesn’t count towards the course grade). For one of the questions, she is certain the correct answer is C, but the rest of her group all says the answer is A. Based on information about the Asch line studies, how would Amanda be likely to respond?

a. She would firmly state her case for answer C.
b. She would easily be persuaded that the actual answer is A.
c. She would go along with the group, but still believe C is correct.
d. She would ask for a new group.

Answer 41

c

Question 42

The Asch line studies were conducted over fifty years ago, and society has changed quite a bit. A recent study involving fMRI and the line judgment task attempted to replicate some of Asch’s results. What were the results of this study?

a. People today are more susceptible to conformity than people fifty years ago.
b. People today are less susceptible to conformity than people fifty years ago.
c. Results suggested that people no longer conform.
d. Results were very similar to those of Asch’s original studies.

Answer 42

d

Question 43

Results from a recent fMRI study replicated Asch’s line judgment study. The results of the fMRI suggest that when participants judged rotated figures and stated a correct answer when the others around them unanimously stated an incorrect answer, the area of the brain that was active was the

a. visual cortex, which senses and perceives visual input.
b. amygdala, which is associated with negative emotions.
c. hippocampus: an area associated with trauma.
d. right cingular gyrus: an area associated with pain detection.

Answer 43

b

Question 44

Research by Baron et al. (1996) on the importance of accuracy indicates that the more important it is for people to be accurate, the

a. less likely it is that people will conform, regardless of how clear the correct answer is.
b. more likely it is that people will conform, regardless of how clear the correct answer is.
c. more people conform if the correct answer is ambiguous and the less people conform if the correct answer is clear.
d. more people conform if the correct answer is clear and the less people conform if the correct answer is ambiguous.

Answer 44

c

Question 45

The norm in your large psychology class is that students will remain quiet enough for others to hear the professor and one another during lectures and discussions. When you talk loudly to the person next to you and violate the norm, like the deviant in Stanley Schachter’s “Johnny Rocco” study, you can expect that your classmates will first

a. ignore you.
b. talk to you, hoping to change your behavior.
c. punish you by not working with you on the class project.
d. tell you to sit someplace else during the next class meeting.

Answer 45

b

Question 46

You need to give a presentation in your class about Bibb Latané’s social impact theory (1981). You want to focus on the three variables that influence the likelihood that people will conform to social influence pressures. Your lecture will include:

a. strength, immediacy, and number.
b. norms, values, and social practices.
c. anonymity, situational ambiguity, and norms.
d. pressure, resistance, and interdependence.

Answer 46

a

Question 47

Marcia values the opinions and desires of both her parents and her close friends. When she’s with her parents, she finds herself agreeing with them. When she’s with her friends, she finds herself agreeing with them, even though they sometimes disagree with her parents. This change in Marcia’s behavior represents the influence of Bibb Latané’s (1981) concept of ________ on normative conformity.

a. number
b. immediacy
c. pressure
d. strength

Answer 47

b

Question 48

Dr. Lemitt finds Bibb Latané’s (1981) social impact theory very useful when she is researching conformity because its tenets

a. predict when conformity is adaptive and when it’s not.
b. identify the costs of refusal to conform to norms.
c. predict characteristics of people most likely to resist conformity pressures.
d. identify variables that make a source more influential.

Answer 48

d

Question 49

Suppose you wanted your friend Nick to agree to join the “Save the Seals” campaign, a campaign that most of your other friends support. You should invite Nick to a meeting of

a. two friends of Nick who support Save the Seals, and two friends of Nick who do not support “Save the Seals.”
b. two other friends of Nick who support “Save the Seals.”
c. four other friends of Nick who support “Save the Seals.”
d. seven friends of Nick who support “Save the Seals,” and three friends of Nick who do not support Save the Seals.

Answer 49

c

Question 50

According to Latané’s (1981) social impact theory, as group size increases from two to three members, the impact will increase ________ if a group increases from twenty-nine to thirty members.

a. exponentially
b. more than
c. substantially less than
d. the same amount as

Answer 50

b

Question 51

Which of the following comparisons represents the strength dimension as defined by social impact theory (Latané, 1981)?

a. friends versus strangers
b. a group of two acquaintances versus a group of ten acquaintances
c. living with your family versus living 100 miles away
d. yielding to informational influence versus yielding to normative influence

Answer 51

a

Question 52

Research shows that conformity is not always required of group members. If a member of your group occasionally deviates from the group and the group doesn’t impose negative consequences, the individual has used some of his/her ________.

a. idiosyncrasy credits
b. descriptive norms
c. propaganda
d. power

Answer 52

a

Question 53

Jane’s softball team is planning to steal the other team’s mascot—a baby goat. Jane does not want to participate in such a scheme. Which of the following situations would make it more likely that Jane will refuse to help her team steal the goat?

a. Jane has built up “favorability credits.”
b. The situation is ambiguous.
c. The group is important to Jane.
d. Another member of the team decides not to participate.

Answer 53

d

Question 54

Recall that in an Asch-type conformity experiment (Frager, 1970), Japanese students were less conforming than were North Americans. According to researchers, these findings suggest that

a. Japan is a less interdependent culture than other Asian countries.
b. in Japan, conformity is more likely in groups toward which one feels loyalty.
c. industrialization has changed Japan into a more independent culture.
d. Japanese compete with strangers, but cooperate with friends.

Answer 54

b

Question 55

Cross-cultural replications of Solomon Asch’s original (1951) conformity studies (in which participants gave public judgments of the lengths of lines) have revealed that

a. because humans are a social species, normative conformity pressures are universal.
b. people’s conformity in these situations varies depending on the culture in which they were reared.
c. cultures differ in the extent to which private acceptance follows from public compliance.
d. implicit conformity pressures vary from culture to culture, but explicit pressures do not.

Answer 55

b

Question 56

Dr. Emile is trying to replicate Asch’s study in a collectivist culture. He’s not seeing the degree of conformity in the lab that Asch saw. Which of the following is the most likely reason why?

a. Collectivists are more likely to conform to a group that’s important to them, rather than a group of strangers.
b. Collectivists are especially sensitive to the lab environment and are likely to use informational social influence in this research.
c. Collectivists are not likely to obey an outsider, so they are not doing what he’s asking them to do in the lab.
d. Collectivists have a lot of responsibilities to their families and groups so aren’t interested in his research.

Answer 56

a

Question 57

Mark is a Democrat. He just joined a Welfare Reform Committee made up of nine Republicans. Mark holds a minority opinion on this issue. If Mark wants his opinion to influence the group’s final recommendations, he should

a. express a consistent, unwavering viewpoint.
b. express his opinion, but voice the Republican viewpoint from time to time as well.
c. express his opinion once and then remain quiet.
d. remain quiet to avoid upsetting the group.

Answer 57

a

Question 58

Wilson is part of a group and has a different opinion from the rest of the group. He can successfully influence the majority group through

a. informational social influence.
b. normative social influence.
c. public compliance.
d. assertive verbal jousting.

Answer 58

a

Question 59

Majorities tend to rely on ________, whereas minorities tend to rely on ________.

a. informational social influence; normative social influence
b. normative social influence; informational social influence
c. normative social influence; idiosyncrasy credits
d. informational social influence; conversion

Answer 59

b

Question 60

________ norms address people’s perceptions of what other people approve of, whereas ________ norms address people’s perceptions of what other people actually do.

a. Descriptive; injunctive
b. Descriptive; subjective
c. Injunctive; descriptive
d. Proscriptive; injunctive

Answer 60

c

Question 61

Public safety officials want to increase the use of seat belts among drivers, and have decided to show a television ad documenting the rising use of seat belts among drivers. This represents the use of ________ norms to change safety behaviors.

a. descriptive
b. injunctive
c. conjunctive
d. proscriptive

Answer 61

a

Question 62

Recall that in a field experiment described in the text, participants were more likely to properly dispose of a handbill left on their windshields when they saw a confederate pick up and dispose of a fast food bag. Results of this experiment reveal the power of ________ to reduce littering behaviors.

a. descriptive norms
b. self-awareness
c. injunctive norms
d. subjective norms

Answer 62

c

Question 63

Catherine and Gabriel are picnicking in the park. They would be least likely to litter when

a. they notice that the park is completely free of litter.
b. a park official tells them about the fines for littering.
c. they see one piece of garbage on the otherwise clean park grounds.
d. they see other people throw away their garbage.

Answer 63

d

Question 64

Emilio is designing an ad aimed at increasing seat belt use. He decides to incorporate slogans like, “It’s great to buckle up!” rather than “35 percent of adults do not regularly wear a seat belt.” Emilio is using ________ in this ad.

a. peripheral cues
b. injunctive norms
c. normative social influence
d. descriptive norms

Answer 64

b

Question 65

The “social norms” approach to reducing binge drinking on college campuses relies primarily on the use of

a. informational influence.
b. normative influence.
c. diffusion of responsibility.
d. perceived behavior control.

Answer 65

a

Question 66

Which student below is being exposed to an attempt to change behavior based on the “social norms” approach?

a. Gary, who is asked to sign a poster placed in the lobby of the student union that says, “I practice safe sex.”
b. Jonathon, who is required to attend a meeting in his dorm on preventing date rape.
c. Tabitha, who sees a poster on campus that says, “83 percent of UX students have 3 drinks or fewer when they drink.”
d. Monica, who role-plays talking to a stranger in line at the store during an assertiveness-training seminar.

Answer 66

c

Question 67

In a field study by Shultz and his colleagues (2007), several households in a neighborhood received weekly feedback about their level of energy consumption relative to their neighbors. Feedback about how much energy they used relative to their neighbors provided participants with ________ norms.

a. descriptive
b. injunctive
c. prescriptive
d. descriptive and injunctive

Answer 67

a

Question 68

In a field study by Shultz and his colleagues (2007), several households in a neighborhood received weekly feedback about their level of energy consumption relative to their neighbors. Some households received only descriptive norm feedback, and some received descriptive and injunctive norm feedback. Which method of feedback was most effective in producing energy conservation?

a. They were both very effective.
b. descriptive norms
c. descriptive and injunctive
d. They were both very ineffective.

Answer 68

c

Question 69

Based on the field study by Shultz and his colleagues (2007) in which several households in a neighborhood received weekly feedback about their level of energy consumption relative to their neighbors, if you wanted to encourage people to use less electricity, what would you do?

a. Tell them the average level of energy consumption.
b. Teach them ways to conserve energy.
c. Give them smiley or sad faces depending on how well they conserved energy.
d. Reduce their bill for efforts at efficiency.

Answer 69

c

Question 70

The social influence strategy in which getting people to agree first to a small request makes them more likely to agree later to a second, larger request is known as

a. propaganda.
b. the door-in-the-face technique.
c. minority influence.
d. foot-in-the-door technique.

Answer 70

d

Question 71

Paul spent Saturday picking up litter on a nearby beach with the biology club. At the end of a very long, hot day, one of the other members asked him to come with the group that evening to catch some invasive lizards as part of a science project. Paul hates lizards. Paul is more likely to agree to the second request now, after spending the day picking up litter, because of

a. the door-in-the-face technique.
b. informational social influence.
c. the foot-in-the-door technique.
d. idiosyncrasy credits.

Answer 71

c

Question 72

In 1975, Cialdini and colleagues asked college students to spend 2 hours chaperoning a group of children on a field trip to the zoo. Only _____ agreed to this request. However, after first asking another group of college students to volunteer every week, for a minimum of two years, _______ agreed to the second request to chaperon the zoo trip because of the door-in-the-face technique.

a. 50%; 17%
b. 17%; 100%
c. 100%; 50%
d. 17%; 50%

Answer 72

d

Question 73

________ is defined as “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the communicator.”

a. Propaganda
b. Persuasion
c. Conformity
d. Influence

Answer 73

a

Question 74

According to the authors of your text, the actions of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official responsible for transporting Jews to death camps, can best be described as

a. a madman in a mad world.
b. an ordinary man in an extraordinary circumstance.
c. a simple bureaucrat easily manipulated by false promises.
d. Hitler’s “fall guy.”

Answer 74

b

Question 75

Milgram surveyed both a panel of Yale undergraduates and a panel of psychology professors before he conducted his original experiment. In these surveys, he found that

a. most people predicted that less than 1 percent of participants would go to 450 volts.
b. most people predicted that less than 10 percent of the participants would go to 450 volts.
c. most people predicted that a majority of participants would go to 450 volts.
d. students underestimated the percentage who would go all the way to 450 volts, while professors’ estimates were fairly accurate.

Answer 75

a

Question 76

In a famous social psychological experiment, participants were led to believe they were to deliver electric shocks of increasing potency to a “learner” for a memorization task. Participants were encouraged to continue even though the learner was clearly in pain, and most participants, in fact, did continue shocking the learner. What famous study is this describing?

a. Asch line studies
b. Milgram’s studies of obedience
c. Shultz’ study of injunctive norms
d. Moscovici’s studies of minority influence

Answer 76

b

Question 77

Which of the following variations of Milgram’s (1963) original obedience experiment provides the strongest evidence of the operation of normative conformity when participants administer electric shocks to a confederate learner?

a. When another (confederate) participant refuses to continue, participants obey less.
b. When the participants are in the same room as the learner, they obey less.
c. Older participants are less likely to obey than are younger participants.
d. Participants are less likely to obey when they believe that the learner will have a chance to “teach” them later.

Answer 77

a

Question 78

156. Recall that Milgram conducted a variation on his original obedience experiment. In this variation, there were two confederates in addition to the participant. When the participant threw the switch at 150 volts, one of the confederates refused to continue, even though the experimenter commanded him or her to do so. In this variation, only about 10 percent (compared to about 65 percent in the original study) went to the highest shock level. This experimental variation demonstrated the power of ________ in eliciting obedience.
     a. informational social influence
     b. descriptive norms
     c. normative social influence
     d. the door-in-the-face effect

Answer 78

c

Question 79

Based on your text, which of the following is the best example of obedience to authority based on normative social influence?

a. A bank teller gives a robber all of her money after he puts a gun in her face.
b. A teacher threatens to take away recess privileges unless her class behaves better.
c. A parent tells his child to eat her peas or “Daddy will be mad at you.”
d. A police officer gives directions to an African-American couple that is lost.

Answer 79

c

Question 80

160. In a variation on his original experiment, Milgram had the experimenter leave the room after telling participants that they could deliver whatever level of shock they chose. After the experimenter left, a confederate suggested that the participant increase the shock by one level each time the learner made a mistake. In this variation, only about 20 percent of participants went to the highest shock level. The fact that the authority figure’s presence made much more of a difference than that of a peer suggests the role of
     a. informational influence.
     b. normative influence.
     c. private acceptance.
     d. mindless conformity.

Answer 80

a

Question 81

According to the authors, in part because the experimental procedures were so ________, it was difficult for participants in Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments (e.g., Milgram, 1974) to abandon the “Obey legitimate authority” norm in favor of the norm that says, “Do no harm.”

a. time-consuming
b. arousing
c. fast-paced
d. realistic

Answer 81

c

Question 82

According to the authors of your text, once participants in Milgram’s studies delivered the first shock to the learner, this created internal pressure to obey. This dissonance made it more difficult later for participants to

a. draw the line as to what exactly was too strong of a shock.
b. continue conforming to the norms.
c. continue to obey authority.
d. listen to the cries of pain from the learner.

Answer 82

a

Question 83

If an executioner were to be questioned about how he could live with himself after taking someone’s life, one likely response (according to the authors of your text) is

a. “The guilt is killing me!”
b. “I love my job; I get to legally hurt people.”
c. “I’m just following orders.”
d. “I am a sociopath anyway.”

Answer 83

c

Question 84

In Milgram’s studies on obedience, the experimenter repeatedly told the participants that they must continue with the study. This aspect of Milgram’s studies violated the ethical principle of

a. informed consent.
b. deception.
c. the right to withdraw.
d. inflicted insight.

Answer 84

c

Question 85

Despite public outcry and rigorous ethical guidelines on research, Burger (2009) did a replication of Milgram’s studies on obedience. How was Burger able to conduct these studies?

a. He conducted them outside of the U.S.
b. He did an archival analysis.
c. He made several changes to adhere to modern ethical guidelines.
d. He lied to the Institutional Review Board.

Answer 85

c

Question 86

Burger (2009) conducted a replication of Milgram’s studies on obedience. One of the modifications to Milgram’s original method was that Burger stopped the study after participants had reached 150 volts (rather than 450). Why did he choose the 150-volt cut-off point?

a. In Milgram’s work, participants who were going to disobey usually did so by 150 volts.
b. Burger actually had the participants hooked up to the shock device with the learner, and 150 volts is quite painful.
c. 150 volts of electricity sounds very painful to participants.
d. 150 volts of electricity actually isn’t painful at all.

Answer 86

a

Question 87

Burger’s (2009) replication of Milgram’s studies on obedience to authority suggests that compared with people in the 1970s, people in 2006 were ________ likely to obey authority.

a. less
b. just as
c. more
d. not at all

Answer 87

b

Question 88

According to the authors of your text, the work of Milgram and Burger on obedience to authority is a clear example of which conflicting goals of science?

a. discover new knowledge; replicate work
b. do no harm; the end justifies the means
c. replication is a waste of time; everything old is new again
d. discover new knowledge; do no harm

Answer 88

d

Question 89

The authors of your text discuss several factors that led to the high degree of obedience in the Milgram experiment. All of the following are implicated EXCEPT

a. normative social influence.
b. informational social influence.
c. gradual commitment and resulting changes in self-perception (foot-in-the-door).
d. aggression.

Answer 89

d