Chapter 7

Question 1

Social influence

Answer 1

= interpersonal processes that change people’s thoughts, feelings, or
actions.

• Majority influence = results from the majority’s impact on the minority.
• Minority influence = results from the minority’s impact on the majority.

Question 2

Conformity

Answer 2

change in one’s actions, emotions, opinions, and judgments in order that this
matches the actions, emotions, opinions, and judgements of other group members.

Question 3

Asch paradigm

Answer 3

an experiment to determine the conformity of participants to group
opinion. Participants believed that they were making perceptual judgments as part of a
group, but the other members were trained to make deliberate errors on certain tasks. >
Participants tended to go with the opinion of the others (the incorrect one), due to the fact
that they did not confess being the only one who has a different opinion (which actually
was the correct one).

Question 4

Different ways in which people react on social influence:

Answer 4

1. Compliance / acquiescence
2. Conversion / private acceptance
3. Congruence / uniformity
4. Independence / dissent
5. Anticonformity/ counterconformity

Question 5

Compliance / acquiescence

Answer 5

publicly agrees with group (because they want to match the opinion expressed by the majority of the group), but privately disagrees.

Question 6

Conversion / private acceptance

Answer 6

agrees with group publicly and privately; first disagrees

with the group, but then changes opinion.

Question 7

Congruence / uniformity

Answer 7

agrees with group publicly and privately (from the start).

Question 8

Independence / dissent

Answer 8

disagrees with group publicly and privately.

Question 9

Anticonformity

Answer 9

disagrees with group publicly but agrees (or has no opinion or interest) privately

Question 10

counterconformity

Answer 10

members express ideas or take actions that are the

opposite of whatever the group recommends.

Question 11

Latane: social impact theory

Answer 11

social impact depends on the Strength (S), the immediacy (I), and the number (N) of sources present > Social impact = f(SIN).

• In this formula, the decreasing impact of increased number of sources of influence is
  consistent with the idea of a lightbulb: low amounts of light can make a big
  difference in the amount, but if there is already much amount of light, adding more
  does not make an effect in lighting up the room.

Question 12

Crutchfield: Crutchfield situation

Answer 12

repeated the experiment of Asch, but anonymous via a
computer, so they could see their responses but not their faces > Conformity decreased.
However, in real life, computer-mediated interactions still conform at rates equal to and
sometimes higher than face-to-face groups.

Question 13

Conforming depends on several factors:

Answer 13

1. Personality traits: people who conform consistently in groups tend to be more authoritarian
   but seek social approval. Also, often people with low IQ or low self-esteem.
2. Gender: women conform slightly more than men. Woman may use conformity to increase
   group harmony, whereas men use nonconformity to create the impression of independence.
3. Collectivistic societies: tend to conform more to agree with one group opinion.

Question 14

Moscovici: conversion theory

Answer 14

consistent minorities will be influential. Minorities create
more conversion and innovation, whereas majorities tend to create compliance. Minorities
make use of the validation process = when a group member has a different opinion, the
other group members will show large interest. When group members get an idea of what the
majority thinks, they will make use of the comparison process = checking if they can join the
opinion of the majority.

Question 15

Hollander: conversion theory

Answer 15

first, people must build a status in a group before expressing their differing
opinions. Idiosyncrasy credit = showing compassion toward high-status members who
violate group norms, which will protect them from sanctions when they display
nonconformity.

Question 16

Latane: dynamic social impact theory

Answer 16

majority and minority influence in spatially
distributed groups that interact repeatedly over time is explained by four processes:

1. Consolidation = when the rate of interaction between individuals increases, their
   actions, attitudes, and opinions will get more similar.
2. Clustering = people are more influenced by their closest neighbours, so clusters of
   group members with similar opinions emerge in groups.
3. Correlation = over time, the group members’ opinions on variety of issues converge/
   become correlated.
4. Continuing diversity = because of clustering, members of minorities are often
   shielded from the influence attempts of the majority, and their beliefs continue
   within the group.

Question 17

Sources of social influence:

Answer 17

1. Implicit influence
2. Informational influence
3. Normative influence
4. Interpersonal influence

Question 18

Implicit influence

Answer 18

produced by cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes that are
often unconscious and unfrequently noticed (e.g., mimicry = mimicking other group
members without realizing doing it)

Question 19

Informational influence

Answer 19

occurs when group members use responses of others as reference
points and informational resources, often in unfamiliar situations.

• Social comparison: using the opinion of the minority to compare with your own
  opinion.
• False consensus effect = thinking that your beliefs, attributes, and actions are
  relatively common, but people actually often misjudge the extent to which others
  agree with their viewpoint.
• Dual process theories of influence = social influence occurs when group members
  systematically process available information (direct process) or base their choices on
  non-rational processes (indirect process), such as emotional responses and heuristics
  (= basic rules that are used to draw conclusions when the amount of information
  available is limited, unclear, or contradictory)

Question 20

Normative influence

Answer 20

collection of personal and interpersonal processes that cause group
members to think, feel, and act in ways that are consistent with their group’s social
standards.

• Disagreeing with others can cause cognitive dissonance = unpleasant psychological
  state that individuals are motivated to reduce

Question 21

Caldini: focus theory of normative influence

Answer 21

normative influence is a more potent

and longer-lasting form of influence than informational influence

Question 22

Interpersonal influence

Answer 22

social influence that encourages conformity and discourages nonconformity through verbal and nonverbal tactics (e.g., complaining, demanding,
threatening, etc.).

• Schachter: nonconformists are generally less liked by others in the group and often
  excluded.
• Subjective group dynamics = psychological and interpersonal processes that occur
  through categorization and identification processes (e.g., the will of group members
  to have a unique group / the will of group members to think that they have the right
  persuasions).
• The black sheep effect = tendency for group members to evaluate a group member
  who performs an offensive behavior more harshly than an outgroup member who
  performs the same offense.

Question 23

Subjective group dynamics

Answer 23

psychological and interpersonal processes that occur
through categorization and identification processes (e.g., the will of group members
to have a unique group / the will of group members to think that they have the right
persuasions).

Question 24

The black sheep effect

Answer 24

tendency for group members to evaluate a group member
who performs an offensive behavior more harshly than an outgroup member who
performs the same offense.

Question 25

The bystander effect

Answer 25

occurs when individuals help less in groups rather than when being
alone, because of the idea that “others can also provide help”.

Question 26

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 26

person experiences reduced responsibility in groups and social
collectives, because it decreases the feeling of personal responsibility.

• Informational and normative influences contribute to both the bystander effect and
  diffusion of responsibility.

Question 27

Story model

Answer 27

theory of cognitive processing of trial information that suggests jurors mentally
organize evidence in coherent, credible stories. Thus, the decision is shaped by social processes
rather than by an unbiased weighing of evidence. Jurors make their judgment according to one of the
two processes:

1. verdict driven jurors
2. Evidence driven jurors

• Saks: changing the size of the jury can be of great importance to improvement:
  o Group structure: small and large juries join discussions equally often. However, small
  juries are more cohesive (= samenhangend), whereas large juries exchange more
  information.
  o Representativeness: smaller juries are not as representative of the community as
  larger ones.
  o Majority influence: the majority’s influence may be greater in smaller juries, because
  the likelihood of finding a partner with the same deviate opinion becomes smaller
  than with large juries.
  o Voting: the likelihood of a hung jury (= jury cannot come to a verdict because
  minority won’t change their opinion) is larger with large juries.
  o Verdicts: however, small juries and large juries don’t appear to differ significantly in
  the types of verdicts reached.

Question 28

verdict driven jurors

Answer 28

they reach a decision about the verdict before deliberation and cognitively organize the evidence into two categories: (1) Evidence that favors a verdict of
guilty, and (2) Evidence that favors a verdict of not guilty.

Question 29

Evidence driven jurors

Answer 29

resist making a final decision on the verdict until they have reviewed all the available evidence and from which they subsequently generate a story that
weaves together the evidence of the trial and their own expectations.