Chapter 8: Social Influence Flashcards
Social Influence
The many ways people affect one another, including changes in attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behavior resulting from the comments, actions, or even the mere presence of others
Conformity
Changing one’s beliefs or behavior to more closely align with those of others, in response to explicit or implicit pressure (real or imagined) to do so
Compliance
Responding favorably to an explicit request from another person
Obedience
In a unequal power relationship, submitting to the demands of the person in authority
Automatic mimicry
Perhaps the most subtle form of conformity is our tendency to mindlessly imitate other people’s behavior and movements
Chartrand & Bargh 1999
Participants and confederates took turns describing various photographs from popular magazines for two 10-minute sessions (with a new confederate in each session) while being filmed.
The confederate in one session frequently rubbed his or her face; the confederate in the other session continuously shook his or her foot.
Results: The participants tended to mimic (conform to) the behavior exhibited by the confederate.
Reasons for mimicry
- William James provided this explanation: arguing that merely thinking about a behavior makes performing that behavior more likely.
- We reflexively mimic others is to facilitate smooth, gratifying interaction and, in so doing, foster social connection.
Sherif’s Experiment
Sherif put individual participants in a darkened room alone, presented them with a stationary point of light on trial after trial, and had them estimate how far the light “moved” each time. Some, on average, estimated very little while others estimated a good amount more.
Next, participants were brought into the room together and asked them call out their estimates.
Results: He found that people’s estimates tended to converge over time. Those who guess a considerable amount soon lowered their estimates; those who guess lower raised their guesses.
Implications: Individual judgments quickly fused into a group norm.
Informational social influence
The reliance on other people’s comments and actions is an indication of what’s likely to be correct, proper, or effective.
This is often more pronounced when we’re uncertain about what is factually correct or when we’re in unfamiliar circumstances and unsure how to behave
Asch’s Conformity Experiment
One participant with seven other Confederates who were instructed to respond incorrectly about the three lines and which line matched with the one line displayed which was obvious.
Findings: Three-quarters of the participants conformed to the group’s incorrect answer at least once.
Normative social influence
The influence of other people that comes from the desire to avoid being criticized, disapproved of, or shunned
Displayed in Asch’s study
Factors affecting conformity pressure
Group size
Group unanimity
Anonymity
Expertise and status
Culture
How does group size affect conformity pressure?
People are more likely to conform to a bigger group
Increase in conformity as the size of the group increases, but only to a group size of three or four; after that the amount of conformity levels off
How does group unanimity affect conformity pressure?
Having one person deviate from the norm in the room allows for someone else to do so, even if they don’t agree
It just liberates other people to make atypical remarks that are of value
So not as much conformity pressure
How does anonymity affect conformity pressure?
It eliminates normative social influence since when nobody else is aware of your judgment, there is no need to fear the group’s disapproval.
Internalization
The private acceptance of the position advanced by the majority
How do expertise and status affect conformity pressure?
We grant greater status to those with expertise, and we often assume that those with high status are experts.
Experts though primarily affect informational social influence since we take their opinions more seriously as sources of information.
Status mainly affects normative social influence since they can do more hurt to our social standing than lower-status individuals can.
How does culture affect conformity pressure?
Interdependent (collectivistic) cultures are more likely to be susceptible to both informational social influence and normative social influence than independent cultures.
Foot-in-the-door technique
It starts with a small request to which nearly everyone complies, thereby allowing the person making the request to get a foot in the door. This person then follows up with a larger request involving the real behavior of interest. The idea is that the target person’s initial agreement to the small request will lead to a change in self-image as someone who does this sort of thing or who contributes to such causes. This person then has a reason for agreeing to the subsequent, larger request.
Freedman & Fraser 1966
Aim: display the foot-in-the-door technique
Procedure: Investigators knocked on doors in a residential neighborhood and asked one group of
homeowners if they would be willing to have a large billboard sign bearing the slogan “Drive Carefully” installed in their front
yard for one week. They were shown a picture of the sign. It was large and unattractive, so not surprisingly, only 17 percent agreed to the request. Another group of residents was approached with a much smaller request–to
display in a window of their home a 3-inch-s quare sign bearing the phrase “Be a Safe Driver. Virtually all of them agreed with the request. Two weeks later, when this group was asked to display the billboard in their yard, a staggering 76 percent of the homeowners agreed to do so.
What is norm-based compliance?
The tendency to act as those around us do can be harnessed to achieve compliance with explicit requests or implicit suggestions.
This simple technique of informing people about social norms is likely to be most effective when the information is surprising.
Pluralistic ignorance
The 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.
Prentice and Miller 1993 Study
Aim: pluralistic ignorance on a college campus; the discrepancy between private attitudes and public norms about alcohol use at Princeton University
Procedures: Princeton
undergraduates were asked how comfortable they felt about campus drinking habits as well as how comfortable with drinking they thought both their friends and the average undergraduate were.
Results: University students believe drinking alcohol is more popular among their peers than it really is. Because of this belief, they censor their reservations about drinking, thus furthering the illusion that alcohol is so popular.
They would indicate that they were less at ease with drinking than they supposed most students were.
Descriptive norms
Simply descriptions of what is typically done in a given context.
Prescriptive norms
often called injunctive norms
are what one is supposed to do
Cialdini 2006 study
Aim: to deal with the problem of visitors taking petrified wood home as souvenirs
Procedures: One sign included the usual emphasis on the severity of the problem, stating,
“Many past visitors have removed petri ed wood from the park, changing the state of the Petri ed Forest,” accompanied by photographs of visitors taking wood. An alternative sign was framed positively:
“
Norm of reciprocity
According to this, people are expected to provide benefits for those who have provided benefits for them.
This powerful norm can be a highly effective tool to elicit compliance.
Reciprocal concessions technique
also known as the door-in-the-face technique
First, you ask someone for a very large favor that will certainly be refused,
and then you follow up with a request for a more modest favor that you are really interested in receiving. The idea is that the drop in the size of your request will be seen as a concession; the person being asked will feel compelled to match your concession to honor the norm of reciprocity. The most available concession the person can make is to comply with your second
request.
Cialdini County Youth Counseling Program study
Aim: showing the reciprocal concessions technique
Procedures: They asked individual students if they would be willing to chaperone a group of juvenile delinquents on a trip to the zoo. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority, 83 percent, refused. However, the response rate was much different for a second group of students who had first encountered a much larger request. Th ey were first asked whether they would be willing to counsel juvenile delinquents for
2 hours a week for the next two years! Not surprisingly, all of them refused, at which point they were asked about chaperoning the trip to the zoo. Fift y percent of these students agreed to chaperone–triple the rate of the other group.
Isen, Clark & Schwartz 1976 Study
Aim: the importance of mood for compliance
Procedures: In one study, participants received a telephone call from someone who claimed to have spent her last dime on this very (“misdialed”) call. The caller asked if the participant would dial a specific number and relay a message. In one condition, shortly before receiving the call, participants were given a free sample of stationery to put them in a positive
mood. In another condition, participants did not receive a free sample before the call.
Findings: When the request was made for those who
had not received the free sample, only 10 percent complied. But the compliance rate shot up dramatically among participants who received the re quest a few minutes after receiving the gift. The compliance rate then declined gradually as the delay between receiving the gift and hearing the request increased.
Why does a positive mood tend to increase compliance?
- Our mood colors how we interpret events. We’re more likely to view requests for favors as less intrusive and less threatening when we’re in a good mood.
- Mood maintenance: it feels good to feel good, and we typically want that feeling to last as long as possible.
What effect does a negative mood have on compliance?
Certain types of bad
moods are actually likely to increase compliance, not decrease it.
When people feel guilty, they’re often motivated to do whatever they can to get rid of that awful feeling.
Negative state relief hypothesis
The idea is that people engage in certain actions, such as agreeing to a request, to relieve their negative feelings and feel better about themselves.
What opposing forces took part in the participants of the Milgram experiment?
On the one hand, forces were compelling them to complete the experiment and continue delivering shocks. Like wanted to advance science and the understanding of human behavior, wanted to avoid making a scene if they left the experiment, and felt they had to fulfill their part of being part of the experiment they received payment for doing.
On the other hand, the opposite is true. The moral imperative they had was to stop the suffering of the learner and the possible consequences if something goes wrong.
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 prerogatives.
Predicts that the moment you feel your freedom is being taken away, it becomes more precious, and your desire to maintain it increases.
What are factors that might increase someone’s ability to resist?
Practice
Having an ally
