Chapter 7 Conformity Flashcards
Social Norms
- Rules or guidelines in a group or culture about what behaviours are proper and improper
- Implicit or explicit
Conformity
A change in behaviour or beliefs due to the real or imagined influence of other people
* Change to become consistent with group norms
Why do people conform?
- The need to be right (Informational influence)
- Fear of Ostracism (Normative influence)
Informational Social Influence
Influence that produces conformity when a person believes others are correct in their judgments
* More likely to conform when situation is uncertain or ambiguous
Examples of Informational Social Influence
- Fire alarms
- Eye-witness testimony
- Sherif’s autokinetic effect
Sherif’s autokinetic effect study
- Participant in dark room shown a single point of light
- Task: Estimate distance that light moves
- Difficult & ambiguous task
- Light is stationary but appears to move
- Do task first alone, then with other Ps in the room
When will people conform to Informational Social Influence?
- Ambiguous situations
- Crisis
- Experts present
Informational Social Influence leads to…
private acceptance
Normative Social Influence
Influence that produces conformity when a person fears the negative social consequences of appearing deviant
(Conforming to social norms to avoid poor outcomes)
Deviant members of a group may face…
- Punishment
- Ostracism
- Bullying
- Cyberbullying
Ostracism
Exclusion from a society or group
Rejection can be physically painful
Social Pressure Study (Asch, 1951)
- 6 Ps, subject was in the next to last position.
- All before him choose the same wrong line.
- Results:
- Went along with incorrect majority 37% of the time.
- 25% refused to agree with any of the incorrect group judgments
- 50% went along on at least half of the critical presentations.
- Those who did not conform said they felt “conspicuous, crazy, or like a misfit”
Normative Social Influence leads to…
Public conformity
When will people conform to normative social influence?
Social Impact Theory (Three group variables)
Social Impact Theory (Latane, 1981)
The theory that social influence depends on the
strength, immediacy, and number of source persons relative to target persons.
Idiosyncrasy Credits
The tolerance a person earns over time by conforming to group norms; if enough idiosyncrasy credits are earned, the person can occasionally behave deviantly without retribution from the group
Compliance
Changes in behaviour elicited by direct requests
Six “weapons” of Influence:
- Reciprocity
- Commitment & Consistency
- Social Proof
- Liking
- Authority
- Scarcity
- Norm of Reciprocity
Treat others as they treat us
Can be used to trap us into compliance
E.g. people are more willing to comply with a request from somebody who has previously provided a favour
Door-in-the-face technique
A two-step compliance technique in which an influencer prefaces the real request with one that is so large that
it is rejected
That’s not all technique
A two-step compliance technique in which the influencer begins with an inflated request, then decreases its apparent size by offering a discount or bonus.
Foot in the door technique
A two-step compliance technique in
which an influencer sets the stage
for the real request by first getting a
person to comply with a much smaller
request.
Low-balling
A two-step compliance
technique in which the influencer
secures agreement with a request but
then increases the size of that request
by revealing hidden costs.
Bait & Switch
- Offering a substitute, usually lesser quality option
- illegal
Labeling
- Assign a label to a person and then request a favour that is consistent with the label
- “You look like a smart/conscientious/patriotic person…”
Obedience
Behaviour changes produced by commands of authority
Milgram’s Obedience Study
In Milgram’s classic, controversial, and profound research, 65% of subjects fully obeyed an experimenter’s command to administer increasingly painful electric shocks to a confederate.
