Chapter 7 - Conformity (PP + book) Flashcards
What is conformity?
-A change in behaviour due to the real/imagined influence of others.
What are the two main reasons for conforming? (2)
-Informational Social Influence
-Normative Social Influence
What is an informational social influence?
-Conforming because we believe that others’ interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more correct than our own.
What can informational social influence bring about? (2)
-private acceptance
-public compliance
What is private acceptance?
-Conforming to other people’s behaviour out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right.
What is public acceptance?
-Conforming to other people’s behaviour publicly, without necessarily believing in what they are doing, or saying.
Example: the elevator experiment where they faced the wrong direction
If it is important to be accurate at a task, what is more likely to happen?
-informational social influence is more important
What are situations where people tend to conform the most to informational social influence? (3)
-Ambiguous or confusing situations.
-Crisis situations.
-When other people are experts.
Why is the decision about whether to conform so important?
-it influences our reality
What is normative social influence?
-conforming to be liked and accepted by others
Does normative social influence occur in public compliance and private acceptance?
-yes in public compliance but not necessarily private acceptance
What are social norms?
-implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviours, values and beliefs of its members
Engaging in co-deviancy behaviours with best friends at age 15 predicted what drug use increase for both boys and girls?
-marijuana (but not alcohol)
What is jeer pressure?
-when you either observe someone else being ridiculed or ridiculing themselves
-those who observed someone else ridiculing another person were much more likely to conform
What did Sherif study?
-the light moving study where people conformed based on what others said, even though the light was never moving
What is Asch’s experiment?
-where they were asked which line matched the length of a particular line and a bunch of people would say the wrong line and the participant would also say the wrong line if it was more than 3 other people doing it
What percent of participants conformed in Asch’s study and gave an obvious incorrect answer on at least one trial?
-76%
Will we conform even to complete strangers we will never see again?
-yes
What did Berns et al., do when they looked at conformity and brain imaging?
-used fMRI during essentially the Asch trial and found that people’s amygdala and caudate nucleus became active when they dissented (showing people felt negative emotions)
What does the social impact theory predict about when will people conform to normative pressure?
-the likelihood depends on group strength, immediacy and number (3 or more)
What is strength for conformity?
-how important the group is to you
What is immediacy for conformity?
-how close the group is to you in space and time during the influence attempt.
What is number in conformity?
-how many people are in the group.
Research shows that the more important a group is to us and the more we are in its presence the more likely we are to what?
-conform to its normative pressures
When is the size of a group more likely to affect conformity?
-under normative influence
When something is unanimous, does this make us more likely to conform? What % conformity in Asch’s experiment? (2)
-yes,
-however just one dissenter will decrease conformity on Asch’s trial on average only 6%
Do women or men conform to influence easier?
-women do, though the differences are very small and depend on the type
When do women tend to conform more to normative pressure?
-when they are in a group situation and observed by others
When Japanese students did the Asch line test with strangers what did some studies find?
-Japanese people conformed even less, because they didn’t care about strangers
The greater the prevalence of pathogens in a country the higher degree of what in that country?
-conformity
How can someone resist normative influence?
-be aware that it is happening, find someone else who agrees with you and know that if you’ve conformed most of the time in the past that dissenting won’t matter as much
What does boomerang mean in terms of normative influence?
-lets say you’re trying to get people to drink less and so share statistics on how often university students drink. People who drink less than this may boomerang and begin to drink more
When does minority influence occur? What helps this? (2)
-when a minority of group members influence the behaviours over the majority
-helps if they present their views consistently, they present them strongly
Would minority influence be through informational or social influence and through public or private? (2)
-informational social influences
-private acceptance
Define compliance
-a change in behaviour in response to a direct request
What is foot-in-the-door? Example. (2)
-get people to agree to something small so they will agree to something larger later
-someone asks if you will put a campaign sign in your lawn and then come back later and ask for donations
What is door-in-the-face? Example. (2)
-ask for something very big knowing you will get turned down, but then ask for the smaller item you really wanted
-hey mom, can I borrow $100? Okay can I borrow $10?
What happens during the foot in the door that allows it to work?
-we develop a change in self perception that we are those who help others for example
What are reciprocity norms when it comes to door in the face?
-people feel obligated to return something after they have rejected another thing
What is lowballing? Why does it work? (2)
-getting a customer to agree to purchase a product at a very low price and then raise the price
-often the customer will still purchase it because it seems irrevocable, they don’t want to disappoint, and the new price is only slightly higher
What are they calling reverse psychology?
-strategic self-anticonformity
What are two reasons to use strategic self-anticonformity?
-to elicit compliance from someone else or to get reassuring messages
Define obedience
-conformity in response to the commands of an authority figure
What percentage of participants fully obeyed the Milgram experiment and did the entire voltage?
-62.5%
What influence made it hard for people to refuse continuing the Milgram study?
-normative social influence
Describe how self justification worked in the Millburn experiment.
-once the participant gave the first shock which was minimal and they justified it because of it minimalness it became difficult to say when to stop, especially because they were increasing in small increments
Did being made aware of the power of authority make a difference for people?
-yes, when they are more aware of it they are more likely to dissent
