Chapter 8

Question 1

Social influence

Answer 1

the many ways people affect one another

Question 2

Different types of social influence

Answer 2

conformity, compliance, obedience

Question 3

conformity

Answer 3

Conformity eliminates potential conflict, makes human interaction smoother, and allows us to not have to think much about every possible action

Question 4

Automatic mimicry(conformity)

Answer 4

Subtle form of conformity that mindlessly imitates other people’s behavior and movements

Question 5

2 Reasons for mimicry:

Answer 5

1)William James argued that merely thinking about a behavior makes performing that behavior more likely
2)to facilitate smooth,gratifying interaction and fostering social connection

Question 6

Some mimicy is synchronous

Answer 6

Studies show synchonized action can create powerful feelings of closeness and bonding

Question 7

sherif’s conformity experiment

Answer 7

Sherif’s experiment built around autokinetic illusion- the sense that stationary point of light in a completely dark environment is moving

~He found that people’s estimates tend to converge over time

Question 8

informational social influence-

Answer 8

the reliance on other people’s comments and actions as an indication of what’s likely to be correct

example:sherif’s experiment

Question 9

asch’s conformity experiment

Answer 9

-students match the length of the line
~As asch predicted, there was less conformity in his study than Sherifs, but the rate of caving in to the group was still high

~Overall participants confirmed on a third of the critical trials

Question 10

normative social influence

Answer 10

the desire to avoid being criticize, disapproved ,or shunned

~People are often reluctant to depart from norms of society or groups they care about, because of the fear of social consequence

Question 11

Factors affecting conformity

Answer 11

1)group size

2)Group unanimity

3)anonymity

4)experitese and status

5)culture

Question 12

group size

Answer 12

Increase in conformity as the size of the group increases, but only to a size of 3 or 4, after that the amount of conformity levels off

Question 13

group unanimity

Answer 13

This effect occur because the presence of an ally weakens both informational social influence (maybe i’m right after all) and normative social influence(at least i’ve got someone to stand by me)

Question 14

anonymity

Answer 14

anonymity eliminates normative social influence and therefore should substantially reduce conformity

~

Question 15

distinction between informational and normative social influence

Answer 15

Informational social influence, by guiding how we come to see the issues or stimuli before us, leads to internalization or the private acceptance of the position advanced by the majority

Normative social influence in contrast, has a greater impact on public compliance than private acceptance

Question 16

culture

Answer 16

people in interdependent culture are likely to be more susceptible to both informational social influence and normative social influence

Question 17

Gelfand asked people in 33 countries about appropriateness of behaviors such as crying,laughing, singing, flirting in social situations

Answer 17

The tighter the nation’s law and norms, the fewer of these behaviors were allowed in these various situations

Question 18

Tighter nations have

Answer 18

higher ecological restraints(denser population, less natural resource)

Question 19

minority opinion

Answer 19

Minorities have effect primarily through informational social influence rather than normative social influence

Question 20

green and blue experiment

Answer 20

-particpants called out whether the color was green or blue
-confederates called out green even though it was more blue
~consistency of confederates answers influenced participants to call out green too
When minority opinions was consistent, it had an immediate effect on participant’s responses in the public setting and a latent effect on subsequent private judgements

Question 21

consistency

Answer 21

people perform actions consistent with self image

Question 22

foot in door technique

Answer 22

starting with a small request that nearly everyone complies then baiting them to larger requests involving real behavior of interest

Question 23

Norms

Answer 23

informing people of norms is effective when the norm is surprising in nature because people misunderstand norms

Question 24

pluralistic ignorance

Answer 24

tendency for people to act in ways that conflict with true beliefs or preferences because of their preference is not widely shared by others

Question 25

static norm

Answer 25

represents the current state of typical behavior within the group

Question 26

dynamic norms

Answer 26

refers to changes and trends in social norms over time

Question 27

norms changing indicates a shift towards more desirable behaviors

Answer 27

people are influence not just by what the norm is but influence by trends (how the norm is changing)

Question 28

descriptive norms

Answer 28

describe what’s typically done in given context

Question 29

prescriptive norms

Answer 29

dictates what one should do

Question 30

people thinking emphasizing how others rarely follow prescriptive norms makes rules seem more important but it has opposite effect

Answer 30

more effective to emphasize the high level of adherence to a prescriptive norm, rather than deviance

Question 31

norm of reciprocity

Answer 31

feeling compelled to return a benefit when someone provides benefit

~effective in eliciting compliance

Question 32

reciprocal concessions technique (door-in-face technique)

Answer 32

exploits the norm of reciprocity to influence compliance (making a larger request that will be refused first then ask a smaller one)

~people will feel bad about declining first request and then agree for smaller request to make up for it

Question 33

seizing during the right mood

Answer 33

better to ask for favor when someone is in good mood because they’re more likely to agree

Question 34

positive mood increases compliance for 2 reasons

Answer 34

1)mood influences how we interpret events
~good mood requests are less intrusive and threatening
2)if we’re in a good mood, we want to stay in good mood
~doing favors is a way to maintain good mood

Question 35

compliance is increased when act of compliance aligns with maintaining good mood

Answer 35

guilt can actually increase compliance because people want to increase mood

Question 36

negative state relief hypothesis

Answer 36

taking action to benefit someone else especially for good cause can make individuals feel better

Question 37

opposing forces of milgram experiemnt

Answer 37

particpants were conflicted because they were compelled to continue but also wanted to stop experiment to stop suffering of participant

-this interplay between opposing forces provides insight to their response
-altering strength of opposing forces affects rate of obedience

Question 38

authority figures

Answer 38

behavior of indivduals are influence by authority figures involved

Question 39

resisting social influence

Answer 39

people display independence and resist conforming or obeying authority figures

Question 40

reactance theory

Answer 40

states that people experience unpleasant state of arousal when they believe their free will is threatened
~when individuals feel freedom is being taken away, they become more determined to keep it

Question 41

more effective to make disobedience easier than trying to increase the desire to obey

Answer 41

circumstance encouraging individuals to focus on victim over authority figure decrease obedience

Question 42

norm-based compliance

Answer 42

doing what everyone else is doing