Chapter 9 Studies Flashcards
Nickerson study: door-to-door voting
-went door to door to encourage people to vote (this influenced not just the person at the door but the others in the household)
-general social influence
Fowler and Christakis Study: game with money at stake
-studied whether participants in game where money was at stake cooperated with one another or focused on narrow self-interest
-everyone played multiple rounds, played in randomized foursomes each round
-were always influenced by the others that they encountered in the other rounds
-as participants were strangers randomly assigned to groups - results were due to social influence rather than homophony or genetics
-social influence highlights that many elements of a situation can profoundly affect behaviour
Charter and and Bargh Study: describing photographs from magazines
-did 2 sessions of describing various photographs from magazines with a partner
-confederate in one session frequently rubbed their face
-confederate in other session continuously shook their foot
-participants did tend to mimic (conform to) the behaviour exhibited by the confederate - shook foot or rubbed face more often
-ideometer mimicry example
Muzafer and Sherif study: Autokinetic illusion
-how groups influence behaviour of individuals by shaping how reality is perceived
-autokinetic illusion: sense that stationary point of light in complete darkness. Is moving - occurs because in complete darkness there is no other stimuli or frame of reference to decipher where light is located
-put individuals alone in the dark first and they estimated on average that light moved very little (2 inches)(some did) while others thought it moved a lot (8 inches)
-then brought participants into room together - their estimates tended to converge over time
-individual judgements fused into group norm and norm influenced how far participants reported seeing light move
-informational social influence was strong here as task he had participants do was ambiguous - uncertainty of light movement left participants open to influence of others
Asch’s study: 3-line perceptual task
-8 males gathered to perform simple perceptual task - determining which of 3 lines was the same length as target - each person said judgement 1 at a time
-in 1 rial, 1 individual was singled out in the group (the only real participant) - the rest were confederates and were instructed to respond incorrectly - wanted to see how often they would conform - in this study there was absolutely no ambiguity about the situation
-was less conformity in this study but rate people caved and conformed was quite high, 3/4 of participants conformed to groups incorrect answer at least once
-results are disturbing in that we think we stick to what we think rather than following the herd
-participants who weren’t subject to social pressure got the answer right nearly 100% of the time so there wasn’t much uncertainty about the response -here informational social influence wasn’t the main cause of conformity
-main reason was to avoid standing out negatively in the eyes of the group - normative social influence: the desire to avoid being criticized, disapproved of, or shunned
Asch’s study: group unanimity
-when 1 person in the group didn’t conform with the crowd (other than participant), conformity levels dropped to 5 %
-presence of ally weakens both informational social influence and normative social influence
-bring an ally if you don’t want to be pressured to conform
Torrance Study: reasoning problems
-gave navy bombing crews (pilot, navigator, and gunner) a number of reasoning problems
-had to report 1 answer for whole group
-found that if pilot (who holds highest status) originally came up with correct solution, group reported it as their answer 91% of the time
-if navigator gave correct answer, they reported it 80% of the time
-if gunner offered correct answer: group reported it only 63% of the time
Therefore, opinions o higher-status individuals tend to carry more weight
Gefland study: 33 nations variables
-examined variables in 33 nations
-tight nations are more likely to have autocratic/dictatorial governments, to punish dissent, to have sharp controls on what can be said In media, to have more laws and higher monitoring to ensure they are obeyed, and to inflect punishment for disobedience - if nation was tight on one dimension, tended to be tight on all of them - if tended to be loose on one, were loose on all
-the tighter a nation’s laws and norms, the fewer behaviours were allowed in these various situation
-if country has social norms whether someone could strongly disapprove if someone acted inappropriately - tighter nations have tighter constraints on going against norms
-tighter nations have higher population densities, fewer resources, unreliable good supplies, less access to safe water, greater risk of natural disasters, more territorial threat etc. - also ecological constraints
Sistrunk and McDavid study: gender conformity
-study on specific contexts in which men and women differ in tendency to conform
-more likely to conform in areas where you aren’t comfortable
-women conform more in stereotypically male domains (geography or deer hunting for example)
-men in stereotypically female domains (child rearing or relationship advice)
-men and women do differ in conformity, but only slightly
Moscovici study: minority opinions
-had group of P’s call out whether a colour was blue or green - border between blue and green isn’t always clear but critical stimuli P’s saw were ones that when tested along, P’s nearly always thought were blue (99% of time)
-then showed participants the stimuli in setting where they could hear one another’s responses, including those of a minority group of respondents (confederates) who all responded alike
-when confederates varied their responses randomly between green and blue, P’s said green after confederates do so only 1% of the time, about same as when respondents did it along
-when confederates responded green consistently, participants responded with green 8% of the time
-then 2nd investigator showed participants a series of blue-green colours and recorded where participants individually thought blue left off and green began, those who had been exposed to consistent minority now identified more of these stimuli as green; sense of border between blue and green shifted
-when minority opinion is consistent it both has a direct effect on participants’ responses in the public setting and a latent effect on subsequent private judgements
Paintings experiment
-study where two people were asked to rate a number of paintings, supposedly as part of a study on aesthetics
-one real participant, 1 confederate
-1 condition: confederate returned from break with 2 soda’s and offered one to participant
-another condition: confederate returned empty handed
-later, confederate asked P for a favour - explained he was selling raffle tickets - asked if participant was willing to buy any tickets for 25 cents a piece (participant was paid in quarters for participating in study to ensure they would have the money to do it)
-P’s who were given a sofa earlier by confederate bought twice as many raffle tickets as those who had not
-doing a favour therefore creates an uninvited debt that recipient is obligated to repay
-exhibits norm of reciprocity
Cialdini study: zoo study
-asked participants if they would be willing to chaperone a group of juvenile delinquents on a trip to the zoo - 83% refused
-second group was asked first if they would counsel juvenile delinquents for 2 hours a week for the next 2 years - they all refused, then were asked about chaperoning zoo trip and 50% said yes (triple the rate of other group)
-pressure participants felt to comply to what was perceived as concession was responsible for dramatic increase in compliance
-requests must both be made by the same person for this to work - if they aren’t these become separate requests and same level of obligation doesn’t apply
-study is an example of reciprocal concessions (door-in-the-face) technique
Freedman and Fraser Study: sign study
-knocked on doors and asked one group of homeowners if they would be willing to have large billboard sign installed in front yard for one week - only 17% agreed
-second group was asked to display sign in window of their home (3-inch square sign) - virtually all agreed
-two weeks later this same group was asked to display the billboard in their yard - 76% agreed to do it
-human behaviour is subject to momentum - getting people started on something small makes it easier to get them to do much bigger things down the road
-an example of the foot-in-the-door technique
Ibsen, Clark, and Schwartz study: telephone call
-telephone call from someone who claimed to have spent lat dime on the “misdialled” phone call - asked if they would dial a specified number and relay a message
-in 1 condition: shortly before receiving call, P’s were given free sample of stationary to put them in a positive mood
-another condition: P’s didn’t receive free sample before the call
-when request was made - those without free sample complied only 10% of the time
-compliance rate was much larger when free sample was given a few minutes before the call
-compliance rate decreases as delay between gift and request increases
Harris, Benson, and Hall study: Catholic’s donating to charity
-asked Catholics to donate to charity when they were on their way into church for confession or on their way out after it
-those on their way in were rehearsing their sins and thus were feeling guilty
-those on their way out had done penance for sins and were no longer plagued by guilt
-those asked for money on the way in to the church gave more money than those asked on the way out as they were trying to get rid of their guilt by doing something good
-strong association between guilt and compliance
