Chapter 8: Social Influence Flashcards
What is homophily?
tendency for people to associate disproportionately with people who are like them
what are 2 of the factors that impact social network effects?
genes and homophily
What is social influence?
the many ways people affect one another
- these affects are attitude and behavioural changes
What is conformity?
- type of social influence
- changing one’s beliefs or behaviour to more closely align with those of others in response to some real or imagine pressure to do so
What is compliance?
“explicit conformity”
- type of social influence
- person responds favourably to an explicit request from another person
- less nuanced when compliance attempts come from powerful people
What is obedience?
- type of social influence
- more powerful person issues a demand/order to which less powerful person submits
What is automatic mimicry?
- most subtle form of conformity
- tendency to mindlessly imitate other peoples behavior and movement
What are the reasons for mimicry? Why?
- merely thinking about a behaviour makes performing that behaviour more likely (brain regions for perception overlap with action responsible regions)
- facilitate smooth, gratifying interactions to foster social connection
What are the 2 types of mimicry?
- nonconscious
- conscious/automatic: creates closeness
What is the autokinetic illusion?
sense that a stationary point of light in a completely dark environment is moving
which occurs bc in darkness theres no other stimuli, or frames of reference, to help the viewer discern where the light is located
How was informational social influence tested with the autokinetic illusion?
use autokinetic illusion to test this type of conformity:
- people guess light movement distance alone, then with a group
- with group, converge estimate
- when alone after group, retain group estimate
What is informational social influence?
rely on other people’s comments and actions as an indication of what’s likely to be correct, proper, or effective
What was the experiment to test normative social influence?
Asch’s line test
- person agrees with majority even though it conflicts with beliefs
What is normative social influence
the desire to avoid being criticized, disapproved of, or shunned
What are the factors that affect conformity pressure?
- group size = ↑ group size = ↑ conformity until 3-4 ppl, then levels off
- group unanimity: tendency to go along with misguided other people drops with someone who disagreed with majorty
- anonimity: ↓ normative social influence
- expertise and status of others = ↑ conf.
- culture: interdependence = ↑ conf.
- tight/loose cultures
What is a distinction between informational and normative social influence?
info: guiding how we come to see the issue/stimulus causing internalization
normative: avoid disapproval, do/say one thing but continue to beleive aother
What is internalization?
the private acceptance of the position advanced by the majority
in informational social influence
How does minoirty influence majority?
inority opinions can inflluence the majority through consistent and clear messages that persuade the majority to systematically examine and reevaluate its opinions
- mainly through informative not normative social influence
What is the foot in the door technique?
give small request then a larger request
compliance technique that maintain self-image of being agreeable
What is norm based compliance?
people are more likely to comply if people in their social norms are doing something
What is pluralistic ignorance?
tendency for people to act in ways that conflict with their true beliefs or preferences because they think they are not widely shared by others
Types of social norms?
- static and dynamic norms
- descriptive and prescriptive norms
- norm of reciprocity
- receiprocal concessions
what does static and dynamic norms mean?
people are influenced by trends and how a norm is changing (ex. the number of men who consider themselves feminists is increasing)
What is a descriptive norm:
descriptions of what is typically done in a given context.
what is
What is a prescriptive norm?
ie injunctive norm
what one is supposed to do
what ought to be
what is the norm of reciprocity?
people are expected to provide bene ts for those who have provided bene ts for them
occurs in animals as well
providing coke for raffle tickets
what is the THE RECIPROCAL CONCESSIONS?
ie door in the face technique
- ask for large favour first that would be refused, then ask for a small favor (called concession) that you were actually interested in getting
how does positive mood correlate with compliace?
direct relationship, good mood boost does slowly wear off though
1. more likely to give others the benefit of the doubt
2. want to continue feeling good, so we help someone else
how does negative mood correlate with compliance?
certain types of bad moods are actually likely to increase compliance, not decrease it – guilt
what is negative state relief hypothesis?
taking an action to benefit someone else, especially when it’s for a good cause, is one way to make ourselves feel better
reasons for people to continue with milgram expmt?
- release from responsibility
- step-by-step involvement
- they tried to refuse, but failed
What were the modified experiments in milgram for tuning out the learner?
- remote feedback: ppt can’t hear or see learner
- feedback: ppt could hear not see learder
- proximity: learner in same room
- touch proximity: teacher put learner hand on plate
mean level of shock & % of delivering max shock ↓ with proximity
What were the modified experiments in milgram for tuning out the experimenter?
- baseline: experimenter stands next to ppt
- expmter absent and communicated with phone
- ordinary person gives instructions
- contradictory exmpters
decreases mean level shock and % delivering max shock
how did the tuning out exmpter and tuning out learner trials compare for the milgram expmt?
turning out experimener had more pronouncer effect:
making it easier to disobey is more effective that increaseing desire to disobey
what is the reactance theory?
people experience an unpleasant state of arousal when they believe their free will is threatened, and they often act to reduce this discomfort by reasserting their entitled
(do things parents say you shouldn’t)
practice is important - need to have experience in maintaining attitudes
how can you resist social influence?
- practice
- having an ally
What is a norm?
expectations held by a group of people about what behaviours are right / wrong, acceptable / unacceptable
no legal implications
types of norms?
- Explicit norms: written/spoken
- Implicit norms: not openly stated
what are perceived norms?
Many situations in everyday life in which we are influenced by behaviour of others
what is a benefit to conformity?
can be used in prosocial causes (standard appeal vs social norm appeal)
what is standard appeal? what is social appeal?
standard: what is normal
social: what everyone is doing
what is a descriptive norm?
what an individual perceives to be typical behaviour in
a setting
what most people do
what is an injunctive norm?
what people are
expected to do in a setting
MORE EFFECTIVE THAN DESCRIPTIVE
wht do people conform?
- informational influece: want to be right
- normative influence: we want to be liked
gender differences in conformity?
women by a small difference especially in group pressure settings
cultural differences in conformity?
People in collectivistic cultures more likely to conform than those in individualistic
cultures
working class people conform more than middle class
Free Gift Technique?
uses reciprocity compliance
- get someone to comply by doing a favour for him/her in advance
how does commitment/consistency affect compliance?
if we comit to something we are more likely to continue committing (low ball technique - small request 1st then change deal terms)
obedience is usually used for
prosocial purposes: not inherently bad or good - based on intention
Key to avoiding obedience to
immoral orders:
resistance should begin immediately
