Chapter 6 Flashcards
conformity
A change in behaviour
or belief to accord with others.
compliance
Conformity that involves
publicly acting in accord with social
pressure while privately disagreeing.
obedience
Acting in accord with a
direct order.
acceptance
Conformity that involves
both acting and believing, in accord
with social pressure.
- acceptance sometimes follows compliance
Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation
- whether it was possible to observe the emergence of a social norm in the laboratory
- in a dark room with a small light, it is at first still, then it moves erratically, then disappears
- then must guess how far it moves
- you give a random guess, because you have no way to tell
- you discuss with other people and you all have different results
- repeating this experiment, a norm typically emerges after continually discussing with others
- the norm usually is found around the fourth day
- this is an optical illusion called auto kinetic phenomenon
- even tested years later, the people still stuck to the group norm
autokinetic phenomenon
Self (auto) motion (kinetic). The
apparent movement of a stationary
point of light in the dark. Perhaps you
have experienced this when thinking
you have spotted a moving satellite in
the sky, only to realize later that it was merely an isolated star.
confederate
An accomplice of the
experimenter.
Robert Jacobs and Donald
Campbell (1961)
- studied transmission of false beliefs
- Using the autokinetic phenomenon, they had a confederate give an inflated estimate of how far the light moved.
- The confederate then left the experiment and was replaced by another real subject, who was in
turn replaced by a still newer member. - the inflated estimate persisted for five generations of participants
- These people had become “unwitting conspirators in
perpetuating a cultural fraud.” The lesson of these experiments: Our views of reality are not ours alone.
mood linkage
Just being around happy people
can help us feel happier
“the chameleon effect.”
tendency to mimic those around us
And because our behaviour influences our attitudes and emotions, our natural tendency to mimic inclines us to feel what the
other feels
Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure
- in a group, shown one line and shown a set of three lines, asked to match the one line to one of the lines in the set of three
- everyone else answers, but they all have the same answer that is different to yours
- people who answered when alone were correct 99% of the time
- Although some people never conformed, three-quarters did so at least once. All told, 37 percent of the responses were conforming.
Of course, that means 63 percent of the time people did not conform.
The experiments show that most people “tell the truth even when others do not,” noted Bert Hodges and Ann Geyer (2006).
Milgram’s Obedience Studies
- tested what happens when the demands of authority clash with the demands of conscience.
The experiment requires one of them to teach a list of word pairs to the
other and to punish errors by delivering shocks of increasing intensity.
- random assignment
The experimenter tells the teacher to “move one level higher on the shock generator” each time the learner gives a wrong answer. With each flick of a switch, lights flash, relay switches
click, and an electric buzzer sounds.
the shocks get more painful, and the person receiving the shock expresses the pain, and as the pain increases the person pleads to stop and screams
To keep the participant going, the experimenter uses four verbal prods:
Prod 1: Please continue (or Please go on).
Prod 2: The experiment requires that you continue.
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue.
Prod 4: You have no other choice; you must go on.
People guessed that they would disobey by about 135 volts. But they also said that they thought
other people would disobey by 200 volts
results showed that 65% went all the way
Those who stopped often did so at the 150-volt point
the ethics of Milgrim’s experiment
yes the learners did not receive any real shock, but the teachers were put through stress against their will, and experienced agony. They sweated, trembled, stuttered, bit their lips, groaned, or even broke into uncontrollable nervous laughter.
In his own defence, Milgram pointed to the lessons taught by his nearly two dozen studies with a diverse sample of more than 1000 participants. He also reminded critics
of the support he received from the participants after the deception was revealed and the study explained.
what breeds obedience
The victim’s distance - participants acted most obedient when the learner could not be seen, obedience decreased to 40% when the learner was in the same room, and decreased to 30% when participants held the learners hand
Closeness and the legitimacy of authority - the physical presence of the experimenter effected obedience, when instructions were gave over the telephone, less were likely to be obedient, compliance increases with physical closeness
- when the first experimenter left and was replaced by a secondary experimenter, compliance decreased as well
institutional authority - If the prestige of the authority is important, then perhaps the institutional prestige of
Yale University, where the Milgram studies were conducted, legitimized the commands. Most people said if it weren’t for Yale’s reputation, they would not have complied
The liberating effect of group influence - conformity can also be constructive. The heroic figures who rushed into the flaming World Trade Center towers were “incredibly brave,” noted Susan Fiske and her colleagues (2004), but they were also “partly obeying their superiors, partly conforming to extraordinary group
loyalty.”
Milgram captured this liberating effect of conformity by placing the teacher with two confederates who were to help conduct the procedure. During the study, both defied the experimenter, who then ordered the real subject to continue alone. Did he? No. Ninety percent liberated themselves by conforming to the defiant confederates.
the power of the situation
immediate situational forces are powerful
- reveals the strength of social context
Summary of classic obedience studies
Norm foundation - Sherif - Assessing suggestibility regarding seeming movement of light - Interpreting events differently after hearing from others; appreciating a tasty food that others love
Conformity - Asch - Agreement with others’ obviously wrong perceptual judgments - doing as others do; fads such as tattoos
Obedience - Milgram - Complying with commands to shock others - Soldiers or employees following questionable orders
Group size
In laboratory experiments, a group need not be large to have a large effect.
a group of 3-5 elicit more conformity than just one or two
In a field experiment, Milgram and his colleagues (1969) had 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, or 15 people pause on a busy sidewalk and look up. As Figure 6–4 shows, the percentage of people passing by who also looked up increased as the number looking up increased from one to five persons.
similarly, two group of three elicited more conformity than one group of six
unanimity
Several experiments reveal that someone who punctures a group’s unanimity deflates its
social power
people will nearly always voice their convictions if just one other person has also differed from the majority.
they felt closer to their non-conforming ally
cohesion
A minority opinion from someone outside the groups we identify with—from someone at another university or of a different religion, for example—sways us less than the same minority opinion from someone within our group
cohesiveness
A “we feeling”—the extent to which members of a group are bonded together, such as by attraction for one another.
status
higher-status people tend to have more impact
Among both humans and other primates, prestige begets influence. Milgram (1974) reported that in
his obedience studies, people of lower status accepted the experimenter’s commands more readily than people of higher status.
Public response
As shown in experiments, people conform more when they
must respond in front of others rather than when they write their answer privately.
Public comittment
Prior commitments restrain per
suasion, too. When simulated juries
make decisions, hung verdicts are
more likely in cases when jurors are
polled by a show of hands rather than by secret ballot (Kerr & MacCoun, 1985). Making a public commitment makes people hesitant to back down.
normative influence
Conformity based on a person’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance.
- going along with the crowd to avoid rejection
informational influence
Conformity that results from
accepting evidence about reality
provided by other people.
- leads people to privately accept others’ influence.
concern for social image produces normative influence, and the desire to be correct produces informational influence.
personality vs situation
situation effects whether someone will conform more than their personality does
personality better predict a
person’s average behaviour across many situations
Personality also predicts behaviour better when social influences are weak.
cultures effects on conformity
Cultural values influence conformity.
Compared with people in individualistic countries, those in collectivist countries (where
social harmony is prized) are more responsive to others’ influence.
Nicole Stephens and her
co-researchers (2007) found that working-class people tend to prefer similarity to others, while middle-class people more strongly preferred to see themselves as unique individuals.
Gender influence on conformity
Milgrim found there was no difference in gender in regards to conformity
women were more likely to conform when they were in situations where people could observe the participant’s behaviours, such as the group pressure situations in the Asch study. When behaviours were less observable, the difference went
away.
One of Eagly’s findings was particularly notable. Researchers found that studies with male researchers were more likely to find increased conformity effects for women than studies run by women. Why? Eagly argues this is because men tend to choose more male-oriented topics, where women are less knowledgeable, thus leading to increased “informational” conformity. In essence, then, the gender difference may be in part a con-
found effect.
reactance
A motive to protect or restore our sense of freedom. Reactance arises when someone threatens our freedom of action.
- people act to protect their sense of freedom
attempts to restrict a person’s freedom often produce an anti-conformity “boomerang effect” (Brehm & Brehm, 1981; Nail et al., 2000; Rains, 2013). In one field experiment, many non-“nerdy” students stopped wearing a “Livestrong” wristband when nearby “nerdy” academic students started wearing the band
- reactance may contribute to underage drinking
asserting uniqueness
People feel uncomfortable when they appear too different from oth-
ers. But, at least in Western cultures, they also feel uncomfortable when
they appear exactly like everyone else.
people feel better when they see
themselves as moderately unique. Moreover, they act in ways that will assert their individuality.
Likewise, we become more keenly aware of our gender when we are with people of the other gender
Our quest is not merely to be different from the average but to be better than average.
